The Butterfly Effect
by Dark Inu Fan
Summary: Nothing to do with the movie. Tohru's Foster father was shot while on the job and she finds out. Soon afterword, a cop calls the Sohma house asking for Kyoko. Is there something that our little Butterfly isn't telling us? Complete
1. flight

This has nothing to do with the movie, and everything to do with Tohru Honda. Of which I do not own anyone except Derekku, but he's also not really mine but more like a big brother of mine. Here's your story Derekku!

* * *

Hana looked over at Tohru for the third time in fifteen minutes. Her waves... her waves were very chaotic. Almost like when Kyoko-san died, but more erratic and uncertain than depressed.

There! Tohru's eyes flickered to the clock again as if she couldn't wait for the class to end so she could leave. Her bag was packed as if to leave and her toe was tapping against the leg of her chair (creating a constant ringing): a habit that she acquired from Kyoko without even noticing.

She looked again at the clock, this time her eyes were caught by Hana. "Outside" she mouthed and the other nodded. Uo watched the entire exchange and nodded quickly before going back to her hidden headphones.

After what seemed line an eternity, the bell rang and only an after-shadow of Tohru was left in her desk. The bell hadn't even finished ringing before she was out the door. A look from Hana and a smirk from Uo had Kyo being dragged out the door by his uniform collar.

"Yer commin' with me carrot-top!" Uo yelled impatiently. Bringing this freak along in something _private _that _outsiders_ would easily take advantage of. "Where'd she run off to this time?" Uo asked, dragging Kyo (protesting the entire way) up to the roof.

"She is here," Hana pointed, gliding over to the shivering girl.

"…Again. Not again. NO!" Tohru screeched, running toward the ladder in an attempt to jump. Uo tackled Tohru and pinned her to the ground. "Not another one! The hospital, those damn doctors won't do anything!" she didn't seem to notice that she was facedown in the gravel of the roof (or cussing, imagine Kyo's shock!).

"Are you just going to stand there looking stupid, or are you going to help me keep her here cat-lover?" Uo glared, pulling Tohru up into a sitting position so she could breathe better.

"The claws! His claws were clipped when the silver bullet fired!" Kyo's eyes widened as he clenched his fist, hiding his nails. Was she talking about him? "Ah!" she yelled, trying to scrape at her left shoulder.

"Idiot! Grab her hands!" she drew first blood before he reacted and attempted to grab her fists, getting scratched in the havoc.

"Tohru! Tohru-kun! Calm down it's…

"No!" Hana cut Kyo off and grabbed Tohru's face in both hands. It was wet from sweat and tears. "Whose claws? Who was shot?" this confused Kyo beyond belief: why aren't they stopping this? Why were they asking more from the distraught girl?

"Th-the claws? Wild animal…big…brown. It's sunny out. In town, red lights. Colors!" Tohru said in a daze, swaying dangerously. The two-minute bell rang and everyone jumped. Hana pressed Tohru to her chest in a hug as Uo hugged her other side.

"Shh, shh Tohru-chan. Listen to my heartbeat. In, out, in, out…you did fine." Hana cooed, stroking the girl's moist hair.

"What'd I say?" Tohru mumbled, trying to wipe her tears off with Hana's proffered black lace handkerchief. "I did _it _again, didn't I?"

The girls nodded solemnly and looked anywhere but the girl leaning against the chain-link fence. Kyo looked between the three and threw his hands up in frustration. "What's _it_?" he yelled, leaning against the wall that held the door.

After one last sniffle, Tohru gave a small smile and opened the door. "Kyo-kun, I'll tell you later, but can you tell Myuko-sensei that I went to the restroom for me? I might need to wash my face after I talk to them," Kyo rolled his eyes, but nodded anyway.

"If you take too long, they might send someone after you," Kyo pushed the door open further and stomped town the stairs, "stupid girls. What's it with goin' to the bathroom in…" his question was cut off by the door shutting.

"So." Uo started, turning back to the shorter girl, "your freakiness went extra freaky today. Just like…Kyoko… o-Oh!" Uo moaned, hoping that something bad wouldn't happen like last time.

"Yes, but what did I say?" Tohru asked, pulling her hand away from the base of her neck with some blood on it. She'd have to get that looked at later—probably by Hatori-san.

"Something about claws being cut with a 'silver' bullet…"

"Okay, that would be a fighter being shot…" Tohru mumbled.

"And something about…colors. Lots of colors." Uo finished, looking around as if the answer was _right there_.

"It's always been someone I've known… the boys!" Tohru panicked, nearly running to the door, but Uo caught her first.

"They are safe, for now." Hana commented, looking off into the city, "you should wash up fist so the teacher won't get suspicious." Tohru nodded and walked as calmly as she could to the bathroom. _There were more than just colors…and in the city: Tokyo's Red Light District! But what would a Sohma be doing in the Red Light District? _Hana shrugged and followed her friends to the bathroom.

* * *

**Swoosh** the classroom door slid open and every head in the classroom automatically turned to whoever opened it. Tohru walked in, backed by Uo and Hana, with her head down and her cheeks a bright red.

"Would you mind telling the class why your are tardy Ms. Honda? Uotoni? Hanajima?" the teacher asked (actually, student teacher) with his hand grasping a pen to write out their inevitable detentions. Ever since he came, it had been a mission to prove all the 'perfect' students were scheming monsters, Tohru, Yuki and all of their friends included.

"I…gomen, I…" Tohru stuttered, turning a brighter shade of red than thought possible.

"Bathroom problems," Uo brushed off, steering Tohru to her seat, "we had to ask around for a couple-a yen." Tohru the Tomato nodded in embarrassment, staring down at her desk. She wasn't embarrassed because of the 'bathroom', but of the fact that she couldn't even come up with her own convincing lie. She could lie that she was still living with her grandfather, she could lie about her being fine about her mother's death; heck, she was lying practically every time that she smiled and said she was fine!

"Well, um… don't do it again!" Mr. Teacher exclaimed, clearly flustered at the entire situation.

Tohru's breather outside didn't help her nerves as she practically glared at the door, daring it to open. "Kyaa!" Tohru yelped, her knuckles turning white from gripping the sidebar of her desk. A hand grabbed her! It squeezed and let go as if it wasn't even there.

"Are you planning on going anywhere Ms. Honda?" the gentle voice of Myuko-sensei asked, leaning over as if to check the work on Tohru's _blank _worksheet. She didn't even have a pencil out; it was all in her backpack.

"I-I don't know," Tohru stuttered, grabbing a pencil from her bag, "but… I have a bad feeling, that's all." Myuko-sensei nodded to herself, standing up.

"Get some sleep, that might help…"

**Swish!** The door slammed open and Tohru jumped again. "Mi-Miss Honda Tohru here?" an out-of-breath student asked, gripping both sides of the frame before catching his breath. "A-a message for you." Tohru nodded quickly and stood up, sending an encrypted look at her friends, they nodded in return.

"You'd better grab her stuff, orange-top, she ain't commin' back to get her stuff," Uo said as calmly as she could, looking at the silhouettes of the two in the hallway.

"What? No!" came a feminine yell in the hallway, followed by a "Miss! You have to stay until school gets out!"

"Better yet, just make sure she doesn't get herself run over and have princey get her stuff," Uo shoved Kyo out the door.

"Wha…?"

"Hana's too slow and I couldn't help her last time, and princey's at one of his meetings! So go!" she slammed the door in his face so that he had no choice but to give chase.

"Well…" the classroom was completely silent, "Ms. Uotani take your seat and… for the rest of you, turn to page 187 in your books…"

* * *

"Tohru, wait!" Kyo called, finally catching up to the frantic girl in the locker bay for street shoes. She did slow down long enough to jump into her shoes, but as she tried to stand up again, she tripped and her head hit the bench, opening up a relatively large cut over her eyebrow. _I'll need to call Hatori when this is done! _Kyo thought distractedly, following the frantic girl the best he could without transforming. Luckily, there weren't many people out in the middle of the day.

Vaguely, Kyo noticed that Tohru was following the same path that an ambulance had driven past them on. The way was marked with blue signs with a white 'H' emblazoned on them. "The hospital? Why's she going to the hospital?" Kyo asked himself, watching Tohru run into the hospital parking lot.

* * *

Tohru was nervous, nearly hysterical, and now she had a reason to be. When that student came in and the _look_ in his eyes when he spoke it was like…

"Excuse me, Ma'am, but do you need a doctor?" the receptionist asked, eyeing the blood running down her brow to her chin.

"Later. What room is Derekku Hontoshi in?" Tohru asked, bouncing from one foot to the other.

"Yes, but please sign the guest list first," she pushed a clipboard forward that Tohru messily signed, "he's in room 356, take the elevator…

"Thanks, I know where it is!" Tohru called, waving her way to the elevator.

"Do you want a doctor?" the receptionist called back, only to get an 'ok' signal from the disappearing girl.

The automatic doors slid open a few minutes later to reveal a slightly out-of-breath redhead…orange-head… looking around. "Are you looking for something sir?" _I bet he's with that girl _the receptionist asked, pushing the guest registry across the desk subtly.

"Did a girl come in her a little while ago? Long auburn hair, short skirt…"

"Yes, room 356. I was just about to send a doctor to look at her head. It's upstairs and to the le…"

Thanks!" Kyo ran to the stairs to take the more reliable way up.

"Kids these days!" the receptionist huffed, grabbing the registry to make corrections so 'Tohru Honda' read 'and guest'.

Both Tohru and Kyo reached the proper floor at about the same time, so while Tohru rushed ahead, Kyo lagged behind to give her some privacy… as well as catching his breath. Unexpectedly, Tohru didn't seem out of breath in the least.

Running her eyes along the room numbers, she stroked one plate solemnly before moving one. When Kyo passed, he glanced at the plate curiously: 270. He'd have to ask about that later.

"Papa-bear!" came a squeal from down the hall, followed by a small 'Oomph!' Kyo chuckled as he came onto the sight of a relived Tohru hugging a graying man sitting up in the hospital bed. The two were what would seem to be complete opposites: whereas Tohru was young, skinny and oblivious to the world; this man 'papa-bear' had seen life's miseries and had the proof in his eyes, but still managed to be jovial for the girl. He was at least four times Kyo and Tohru's size, but incredibly fit at the same time… for an old guy with a gut.

Kyo eyed the leather jacket that was slung over the back of the chair he invited himself to sit on. The back had a sky-blue infinity with a red butterfly on one side and a purplish-blue on the other.

"Boy!" Kyo snapped his head up at the gravelly voice emanating from the bed, "you mind explainin' wha' yer doin' here?" Kyo couldn't help but shudder under the man's gaze.

"Um…"

"Kyo! You followed me?" Tohru tilted her head, tear mixing with her drying blood. "Oh!" Tohru looked between the man on the bed and the teenager in the only chair in the room, "introductions! Papa-bear, this is Kyo Sohma: one of the guys that took me in. Kyo-kun, this is Derekku, my… foster-father, you could say?" she asked nervously, looking over at the man, who gave a smile and nod.

"Is he good t'ya?" Derekku asked, leaning back on the bed.

"M-hmm! Yes, they're all very nice to me!" Tohru nodded enthusiastically. He smiled softly and dabbed one of his napkins in his glass of ice water to start stanching some of the blood.

"But are they takin' care of ya, lettin' ya have yer freedom?" he worked up her cheek, washing off what he could while having her hold the other napkin over her cut, "close yer eye."

"I do housework for my bed, but otherwise I do what I want," Tohru explained, "but by the time I'm done, I don't really have much free time… but I like doing the work!" her head bobbed feverishly, starting up the blood-flow again.

"Yer too skinny! If ya don't stop movin' 'round, yer goin' ta bleed ta death." Tohru's face went comically straight and she sat down on the edge of Derekku's bed (but there wasn't really that much room!).

"She hasn't bled that much from the cut, but she will need stitches," came a nearly monotonic voice from the door.

"Hatori-san!"

"Didn't know you worked here."

"Hey doc."

Hatori came in and set his bag down on the side table. "I was getting paperwork and medicine when I was paged to come up here." Hatori said, pulling out some gauze and peroxide to clean the cut with. Looking at the retraction of the skin, he grimaced internally, knowing that it would undoubtedly mar her face with a scar. "What happened this time?" he asked, rubbing some numbing medicine around the cut, even though the ice water had already numbed it plenty.

"I…I tripped—owe! —when I was changing shoes. I—owe! —didn't really think about—owe!—it until the lady—ah!—at the front desk—owe!—said something—owe!" that last one came out as more of a moan as she tried to close her eye again.

"Tha's my girl! Jus' like her mutter! Nutin' can phase her!" Derekku beamed proudly, patting his hand on her slim shoulder.

"Ah! …Forgot about that." Tohru put her hand on top of his and moved if off her scratches.

"I'll look at that in a second," Hatori glanced at her shoulder before tying off the final stitch and putting a white bandage over it. He closed his eyes and sighed deeply, wondering how many poundings he would get from the Sohma adolescents for saying this: "take off your shirt so I can look at your shoulder." Not to mention he would never be allowed to forget about it from the other Mabudachi members.

Tohru smiled softly at the red faces of Kyo and her foster-father. _Good thing Shigure… or Ayame… isn't here! _Tohru thought as she undid her sailor knot. "Oh, it's not like you haven't seen me in a swimsuit before!" Tohru smiled sweetly, pulling off her shirt to reveal a _black_ bra.

"…Uh…scratches… what scratched you so badly?" Hatori asked, trying not to notice how well the black fabric accented her features as he cleaned her wounds. Shigure's never going to let me forget this one!

"…You wouldn't believe me if I told you…" Tohru trailed off, her eyes momentarily losing some of their Inner Light. "'There are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamt of…' do you believe in clairvoyance?" Tohru voiced, making her sound like a mix of Hana and Hatori's tones. Hatori didn't give any sign of 'yes,' but Tohru continued anyway.

"When pain dissipates, it—spiritually—has to go somewhere, right? I tend to pick up other's pain even if they're not even in close range…especially pain from people I care for." Hatori opened his mouth to speak, but Tohru put a finger to his lips, "the only reason I can't feel Akito too well is because he uses it as a blanket. His pain is his security, I understand that."

Tohru looked over to her foster-father, "you were shot in the shoulder and passed out from it, didn't you?" A sad note took over her voice, "I told you to be careful, Momma told you to be careful, and you got shot!" The guilt in his face was all it took to cool Tohru down as she looked at the sky out the window.

"Something like Kyo's landings… or Ayame's nearly-broken nose (how'd she know about that?)… are only twinges of pain, but this is what a bullet does." Tohru sighed and closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears, "Momma died of a fractured skull, do you know how much pain she was in? I was tearing out pieces of my hair before I could be pinned… the world, life, hurts, no matter what anybody says; and I'm the biggest hypocrite of them all!"

Tohru smiled, but it wasn't her normal smile. It was something… strange. It was the smile that shouldn't be on an innocent child that Tohru was. Scratch that. She was a person that knew the _pains_ of the world, more than many could even dream of. Revelation came to the two Sohma that day, the mystery of Tohru was broken to that day. It was true, no normal person could understand them, and Tohru was not normal in the least.

Nothing else was said for the remainder of Hatori's brief visit.

* * *

"I-I'm going to get something to eat, do you want anything?" Kyo asked after an uncomfortably long silence. Tohru barely looked in from the window, but Derekku jokingly asked for 'anythin' but this blasted plastic food!' with a small nod, Kyo left to hunt down the elusive _good _cafeteria. No telling how long it was since Tohru and her 'papa-bear' were able to talk…

Spotting a public phone, Kyo shrugged and called Shigure to tell him why they weren't home from school yet. The phone rung twice before being picked up. "My little flower! Where is my little housewife?" a bash was heard before Yuki's cool voice was heard with Shigure whining in the background.

"Sohma residence, Yuki speaking."

"Rat, its Kyo. Tohru's visiting a relative…"

* * *

Back in the room, Derekku sat up and hugged the girl from behind, "my little _Cat_erpillar, I missed ya," he whispered softly, taking in the strawberry scent of her hair.

Tohru turned to allow Derekku to see her tears before burying her face into his neck. "I was s-so scared!" she hiccuped and let loose her torrent of emotions, "I-I don't know what I'd do if you left me too!" she gasped, barely audible.

He hummed a few moments and tightened his grasp before talking: "every little _Cat_erpillar, no matter how cute, needs ta grow up and become a Butterfly—a beautiful one at tha'—eventually. Have ya grown your wings yet, or have ya let the past keep them from growin'?" unlike when the Sohma spoke riddles, she actually understood what he meant.

"I don't know anymore… I know that I can do things for myself, but Momma told me never to forget the past…"

"She's righ'… but it crippled her also. She kept her wound so fresh, that she couldn' fly anymore. It had nothing to do with ya, but it was too much for her sometimes…" they both faded into silence for a few moments.

After Tohru's tears dried somewhat, she sat up a little. "Ya wer righ' when you said that I was shot," Derekku said soberly, " I was tryin' ta hunt down a killer in the Red Ligh' District, but one of his buddies walked up on me and shot me from behind. I don't know how long I was out, but I think I know what'll happen next."

"The guy who shot you was a really lousy shot," Tohru tried to joke and they both smiled at their dumb luck.

"When yer mutter died, she left behind a debt of 'an undercover agent'—target is what she called it. They'll contact ya by this weekend, I can tell, to replace your mutter's job as a decoy. Jus' promise me ya won't get killed on yer first outin', K?"

Tohru nodded as her eyes traveled to his bandage, which was soaked with tears and a little blood. "How'd they manage to shoot you anyway?" Tohru asked, poking the center of the red gently.

"Heh, I'm not immortal, ya know tha'!" Derekku guffawed, trying unsuccessfully to lighten the mood. "In my line of work, I'm surprised I'm not dead yet! O-oh, don't cry please, ya know it's true! Plus, it's not the first taste a lead that I've had! All this blubber sure helps me with the blades, but this stuff slows me down. There's always someone stronga, fasta, betta than you are; but tha's jus' part of life. If it doesn't kill ya first, this type o stuff jus makes ya stronger."

A knock came upon the door before it opened to let Kyo in. "I brought Takiyaki (octopus meatballs on a stick) and tea," he said, holding up the proffered items to put on the table. " I called Shigure also, he said that he would send out for dinner tonight so you don't have to worry. And when Derekku gets out, he can visit the house to see how you're living."

"Well, as soon as we finish eatin', we can head out to where ever ya live, eh _Cat_erpillar?" Tohru blushed prettily before dishing the Takiyaki between three napkins, giving the boys considerably more than herself.

"_Cat_erpillar?" Kyo didn't have to say anymore to get Tohru to sigh softly.

"It's a long story, not for right now though," Tohru mumbled with Derekku nodding in agreement with a hidden smile. This would be the perfect way to find out about the men that she was living with, and embarrass her to kingdom come.

"And let me guess, you won't tell me about 'papa-bear' either, right?" They both nodded and dug in. The sooner they ate, the sooner they could leave!

* * *

"I'm sorry that you can't meet Sohma-kun…Yuki, but he's our class president and has a student counsel meeting today. Tadima!" Tohru called her 'I'm home' into the house, getting an enthusiastic reply from Shigure.

"My little housewife, you have returned! Then you **do** love me!" Shigure dodged Kyo's punch, but Yuki's kick sent him sprawling to the floor.

"…Yuki, righ'?" Derekku asked blankly, staring at the silver-haired teen's handiwork, erm… footwork. Yuki nodded quickly before turning to Tohru.

"Your schoolwork is on your desk, but I have to get back to school Honda-kun. I'll be back before dark."

"Okay, I'll just save some of the takeout for when you get back," Tohru said, waving Yuki off with her normal smile. It convinced everyone but Kyo, who'd finally seen through her seemingly solid mask in the hospital.

"A polite pretty-boy, a perver'…" Derekku pushed Shigure with his foot, "and Kyo…I like the carrot-top, ya can trust him. I don' know 'bout da others dough." Tohru smiled back at Derekku's wink and led him to the living room.

"I like it here… it's never dull at least!" Tohru looked over at Kyo, who rolled his eyes and made his exit up to the roof.

"Tohru-kun," Shigure whined, "you never told me about your family before!" he sat down opposite them at the Kotsu. Tohru looked away, embarrassed, and sighed softly.

"Dere's jus' as much ya don' know about me as I don' know about ya," Derekku commented, leaning back careful of his injury.

"This is Derekku Hontoshi, he took in my mom after she was thrown out of her family. Shigure," she gestured from Derekku to Shigure, "is the one that took me in after they found me camping in the woods. Shortly after my tent was squished during a landslide." Tohru blushed in slight embarrassment.

"I thou' ya were livin' with yer granpops? Wha happened there?" Derekku asked, startled that she was living in a tent.

"My dad's sister and her family moved in, so he needed to do some extensions on the house so that they had room. They told me to go somewhere else until the construction was finished, but I didn't want to burden Hana or Uo, so I camped in the woods. I just didn't know that anyone lived out here though! Tea?" Tohru stood up and left so she could get her color back to normal.

"Tha' construction's done, so wha's she still here for?" Derekku looked after Tohru retreat.

"The boys were fond of her… she's captured the entire family's heart, my dear flower!" Shigure, as usual, couldn't help but act dramatically. "From what they told me, they saw that they weren't treating her right and so they brought her back. They were treating her like a slave over there and even though she didn't say anything, she was miserable," Shigure was leaning forward with a serious note on his face.

"Tha's the one thing she's good at, asi' from cookin', 'er emotions. There's so much crap in 'er life tha' she shoul' be miserable, or at leas' par' o' da stree' gangs with the background she's got. How she can smile so much, I don' know… maybe it's jus' good actin' skills. I'd give anythin' ta see da real Tohru again, ta see 'er withou' her head in the clouds. Don't get me wrong, she's a smar' girl, but when she smiles dere's just somethin' missin'." Derekku looked at the ashtray on the table and gave a small smile. It had a snake and dragon circling a crudely drawn dog in the middle. "It's like if she were convincin' herself that by immersin' 'erself in other's problems, she could shrug off 'er own."

Tohru came in during her foster-father's small speech and froze, how did he do it? How could he know so much in so little time? What she didn't know was that Kyo had come back inside and heard it also.

**CRASH** "AAh!" the teacup smashed in front of her feet and splattered the frond of her bare legs. Shigure turned in his chair and looked, seeing the angry welts already forming. "I-I'm fine," Tohru stuttered, kneeling down to pick up the glass pieces.

"No, yer not." Derekku said, picking up some of the pieces that Tohru missed.

Tohru was momentarily silent.

"Worse has happened." She said cryptically, throwing away the pieces in the trash.

Derekku hummed a bit before spotting a familiar redhead in the hall "Kyo! Don' be such a stranga, come and join the party!" he gestured to the table and Kyo nodded shyly.

"Now, ya had a question earlier, so I'll answer with one of me own: wha' is a buttafly before it's a buttafly?" a dull thump was heard as Tohru attempted to bury her embarrassment in her arms.

"A caterpillar?" Kyo asked back, unsure where this was going.

"Mh-huh, I rememba tha' this little caterpillar loves cats, always finding 'em and bringing 'em home."

"No-o-o!" Tohru moaned, her blush extending to her hair and ears.

"An' Kyoko said no every single time, 'ya know that we can' afford 'im, we can barely keep each od'er!' heh, bu' Tohru has a stubborn streak about a mile wide. One day she found this orange furball… oh, abou' Kyo's color… and hid him away in 'er room. By the time I foun' ou', I' jus' looked like I' was beggin' for mercy! Ya see: Tohru had a really good grip for a girlie. I think it's-

"His" Tohru corrected silently.

"Sorry. 'is ribs were probably bruised by the time she le' go. As soon as I got Tohru here distracted, that ca' bolted! I' was out the door in an instan', never lookin' back. Never saw 'im again, have ya?" Derekku asked jokingly, nudging Tohru in the side.

"I… I see him now and again on the street. I think he was adopted though, so I shouldn't have taken him in the first place." Tohru said with a small smile, looking directly at Kyo in a 'we'll talk later' type of way. Shigure looked between the two teenagers and drew his own conclusion, smiling.

"Yes, I see an orange tom wondering around here sometimes. Don't you put some food out for him?"

"I feed him when he comes in to eat, but he doesn't seem to like leeks too much though." By now Kyo was red also.

Derekku looked between the kids and grinned at Shigure, stretching. "Yep, I think i's about time to hi' the hey, so I'd better get goin'. Don' be 'fraid to call _Cat_apillar, I missed yer voice and I've been mighty lonely getting' shot a'!" he waved and headed out the front door and down the trail to the road.

* * *

"Hahaha! Poor kitty!" Shigure couldn't hold it in any longer as he mockingly stroked Kyo's hair. He quickly got a knuckle sandwich in reply. Kyo couldn't even get over his embarrassment enough to speak.

"I'm really sorry about that Kyo… really, I didn't know who-what you were and I thought you were another stray. Were you hurt?" Tohru honestly asked, slumping in her chair slightly.

"And you said that you had gotten into a fight!" Shigure continued to laugh, holding his sides.

"It's not funny!"

**Ring, ring!**

The phone rang and Tohru stood up like she was on fire.

"I'll get it!" she said a bit loudly, clearly showing her frayed nerves. "Moshi-moshi? Tohru Honda speaking!"

There was a momentary silence before a clearly masculine voice replied on the other end, "yes, can I speak to a Kyoko Honda please?" In the other room, Shigure gestured to go into his office, where he had, conveniently, a phone with a silent pick-up: perfect for spying on his little flower's phone calls.

"I'm sorry, but this is her daughter. Maybe you-

"No, this is for the butterfly's ears only, it's Detective Itochu." The voice was clearly getting irritated at the 'child's game' that Tohru was playing.

"I'm sorry, but Kyoko's been dead during duty. I will take her call." Shigure was surprised at the stern tone that her voice had taken.

A sigh came in though the line, "fine, Daughter of the Butterfly…"

* * *

**Yawn** that was enough of a first chapter for me. I only own Detective Itochu and Derekku (though he completely denies anything!). I just wish I owned that orange dream-sickle of a tom, Kyo! 


	2. fight

Yay! Chapter 2! Yeah, only the detective and Derekku are mine.

A sigh came through the line, "fine, Daughter of the Butterfly, your mission is to attract and detain a killer in the Red Light District."

"A prostitute killer! What's wrong with that?" Kyo blurted out, blowing their cover on the extension line.

"Hello Kyo, Shigure, can you get off the phone so I can finish this in private? I'll tell you about it after I get off." Tohru waited to see them both leave Shigure's office before prompting. "They're off now, what about the Red Light District?"

"The killer, lucky for you, goes for young ones in blue. Your MO, right?"

"Did you call for me or my mother Itochu. You knew she was dead!"

"Yes, I knew. I wanted to know if you were trustworthy or not. Have you graduated yet?" now that they weren't being spied on, they could talk personal.

"No, I'm a Junior."

"Oh. So I can't pay you… does your mom still have an account?"

"She's dead, remember—"

"I know, but does she?"

"I guess this is volunteer work then… unless you put my pay in Derekku's check and tell him about it."

"I'll do that. I'll pick you up from school tomorrow, how can I identify you?" he asked, some shuffling of paper could be heard on his end.

"Long hair, yellow ribbons, short skirt, I'll be walking with two boys with interestingly-colored hair. Got that?" Tohru looked over at the living/dining room and gave a small smile.

"Yes, but what type of 'interesting' hair color?"

"Red and silver/purple. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," he sounded uncertain, "bye."

Tohru opened the shoji and Shigure fell down, causing him to transform and knocked Tohru over. "Sorry, I didn't get anything that you didn't hear, but I'm going to talk to him tomorrow after school. So I don't know when I'm going to get back." Shigure tilted his head (looking up her skirt by 'accident') and nodded.

"Pervert." Kyo muttered, pushing Shigure with his foot and helped Tohru up. "I'm coming with you," he said without argument.

* * *

"Why is there a cop car there?" Uo asked, pointing at the black and white. "Someone get in trouble? Maybe it's for you, eh, carrot-top?" 

"It's for me. I have a _job_," at that, Uo shifted her weight and Hana looked away.

The officer walked up to Tohru mumbling: "yellow ribbons, weird people… Ms. Butterfly? I'm here to pick you up."

"Tohru," she said with a small smile, " or Caterpillar, I'm not like my mother." Gesturing to the two friends, "these two are my backup. And the redhead is my escort. Shall we go?" Tohru gave the flustered officer a smile and said goodbye to everyone before getting in the passenger seat, leaving Kyo in the back.

"Heh, always thought he'd in the back of a police car," Yuki mumbled, being informed of everything earlier that day.

"Shut up you damn rat!" Kyo yelled out the window.

"Stupid cat," Yuki mumbled back, walking off home.

"The officer ruffled his already messy hair and sighed, "whatever. He just told me to bring you." He walked around the car and got in, "but he didn't say anything about passengers."

"It's okay, you're doing fine so far." Tohru looked at his young appearance, "how long have you been on the force officer?"

He blushed before answering, "almost a year now, this is the biggest thing I've gotten so far though…"

"I know how that works, do you know my cousin? He's about the same age as you." Tohru took a picture out and showed the officer when they came to a red light. " You know, I'm not really that much of a protection case, sorry," Tohru said with only a small smile.

All of a sudden, a bright look crossed his face, "hey, weren't you the one…"

"Whatever you heard, it's probably not true." His mouth opened again, "no, I'm not available." Cupid's arrow struck his heart and pierced it straight to oblivion. "It's cliché but… it's not you, it's me. It's not safe to have any relationship with me more than sibling-like. I guess you could call it a curse… or a blessing. It just depends."

"So, the rumors are true then. Have you even been kissed before then?" the officer had practically forgotten Kyo in the back seat, but Tohru hadn't.

"Yes, plenty of times… but none of the boys ever remember." Tohru closed her eyes, "just like you won't remember," she whispered.

"All right! Just wait until I tell the boys about this!" he cheered as he parked in the station lot. He got out and practically skipped to the passenger side to let Tohru out.

"Should I just let you stay in there?" Tohru said in mock-seriousness with a smile on her face. "I suppose," Tohru turned to the officer before letting the cat out of the bag… er, back seat, "that I should give you a little prize, right?" the officer nodded enthusiastically and sprayed some breath-freshener onto his tongue. "Then close your eyes," Tohru said just as excitedly, but with a hint of remorse in her voice. She took a deep breath before lunging forward, grabbing both sides of his face, and planting a deep kiss on the officer's lips. He let out a moan of pleasure before his eyes fluttered and rolled back into his head.

"Catch him!" Tohru gasped out, grabbing his hands to slow the decent to the concrete. After they lied him onto the concrete, Tohru wiped her mouth and kneeled next to him, gently brushing his bangs out of his closed eyes. "So, what do you think of my 'ghost kiss'?" Tohru asked, standing back up and heading to the front door.

"And I thought Hatori was scary. What did you do?" Kyo asked, shivering a little despite the building being quite warm.

"I'm not like Hatori-san, I don't erase memories… just change their emotions. If there is any feeling of lust when I kiss the person, that lust turns into hate. And that's hopefully enough for them to leave me alone." Tohru turned to the receptionist, "man down outside, he needs a bed. When we were younger, Hana, Uo and I tried some things we shouldn't have… I was the only one affected…"

* * *

They reached the Detective's office and Tohru knocked, "I knew you were too good to be true!" Kyo grinned and shook his head. 

They entered as Tohru replied, "if I were true, I would have been raped already."

"And she nearly was!" the detective spoke up and gestured to the empty seats in the room. It seemed like a principal's office more than a detective's office. "If not for that voodoo of hers." The detective looked lustful before squashing it, "you must be great at it my now, you should so me some magic tricks sometime. Here's your hunt, Blue, and his vitals."

Tohru opened the file and the face of a greasy-haired man stared back at her. A flash of the man puckering up for a kiss flashed through her mind and she shuddered.

"…Kay? You kinda blanked out there," Kyo waved his hand in Tohru's face.

"I'm going to seriously need some mouthwash after this," Tohru mumbled as she used her hand to cover the disturbing artist rendering.

"You can use mine when we do this."

"As I was about to tell you, he goes after the young ones in blue—that's where you come in. I would have sent one of the others, but you fit the victim profile the best." He flipped to a map of the district and pointed to an intersection not marked with a blue dot, "that's where he's going to strike next. He's moving in a star-like pattern and this is his fifth victim. We tried to attack by force, but he got away." The lust in Itochu's eyes came back, "I think a sting operation would be perfect. We'll go out on next Friday, so that'll give you about a week to prepare."

"Oi, Bitch, here's your crap!" the officer from earlier threw her backpack into the room.

Tohru put on her bright smiles, "good morning sunshine, the sun says hello!"

"Oh, shove it!" the officer yelled back, slamming the door closed.

"Did you have to kiss that one too?" Itochu whined, "soon you won't have anyone to drive you here and then I'll have to do it!"

"Hmm… most of them don't pass out that fast, he has weak denpa…"

"Just get out of here and grab your stuff. I'll meet you out front," Itochu growled and pointed out the door. Tohru collected her backpack and scooted out the door and to the left.

"Hey, that's not the way out!" Kyo called out, pointing to the right hallway, but following Tohru anyway.

"I'm getting my stuff Kyo," Tohru smiled with her normal attitude, " I have a costume that I'll wear while I'm on duty, and I need to get my weapons to practice with them so I don't kill someone I don't mean to."

'_How can she say that like its normal?_' Kyo thought, shrugging.

* * *

They reached a pair of double-doors, painted with a field filled with about twenty different animals, including a pair of butterflies in the corner. "This is the FAT—Female Assault Team—so I would suggest you find a seat and try not to attract too much attention to yourself." Tohru opened the doors and stepped in, "I'll just take a few minutes." 

Kyo sat down just inside the door, watching the women spar or practice with various degrees of weapons. One had as simple as a lead pipe like Uo, going against another one that had a full-blown katana in one hand and a chain in the other. It was a few minutes before anyone noticed him, incidentally, they noticed because of a stray Kunai (throwing knife) that nearly embedded itself into his head if he hadn't ducked.

"What are you trying to do, kill me?" with that, every head turned to stare at the only male in their midst.

"My, my," a tall platinum blonde stepped forward, "there is testosterone in our territory, whatever shall we do?" a spattering of laughter crossed the room. "So," the blonde sat down uncomfortably close to Kyo, "who's pet are you?"

"He's mine, Birdie," Tohru called, entering the room from the lockers. Kyo was dumbstruck at what she was wearing.

"Blue, is he a bed-warmer, or does he actually bite? Poor puppy, maybe you can come with me and I'll treat you better." 'Birdie' practically sat in Kyo's lap as he stood up to avoid an embarrassing situation.

"He bites. Kyo's my 'civie' guardian, so don't touch him." Tohru was wearing blue board-shorts, a blue tube-top and blue sleeves and leggings to match—all leather. She reached up one of her sleeves and pulled out a throwing needle partially.

'Birdie' pulled back, momentarily widening her eyes before grinning, "okay, fine, no touchy. I just wouldn't leave fresh meat alone if I were you,"

Tohru nodded quickly and pushed the needle back into its resting-place. "It would be best if you come in with me, okay?" Tohru gave a gentle smile and pulled him back to the lockers. "I'm sorry about that, I didn't see Swan when I came in, otherwise I would have brought you in sooner." Tohru opened her locker and grabbed her school uniform. "She's here for manhandling—putting three of her boyfriends in to the ICU—and she's dangerous."

"What did she mean by pet?" Kyo suspected, but didn't want to know.

Tohru finished fitting her uniform over her blue costume and took off the leather sleeves and leggings to reveal rows of throwing needles. "A pet is a Yankee term for a man-wife. Unlike my mom, pets are either used for… for pleasure or… a sense of normality in the public eye." Tohru put her weapons into her backpack and smiled, "My parents really loved each other, though practically nobody believed them. I hope you still want to help though."

"Why wouldn't I? Were all of these girls Yankee?" Kyo was at the door, watching a street-style fight that had broken out between Swan and a girl in earth tones that looked like she belonged in the seventies.

"No, some of them just had a bad start… oh, no." Tohru groaned, catching what Kyo was watching in the main room, "those two are at it again? Wyldekat, the hippie, doesn't like how Swan treats men. Unlike you and Yuki, those two don't play by the rules. Nails and teeth and blood and they don't care. If you get hurt it's your fault for getting in the way…" Tohru didn't finish as she dug into her pack to get a strap with small throwing needles hidden throughout the threads.

Swan kicked Wylde in the jaw and Tohru cringed, "Wylde!" she called, sticking a needle into one of her pressure points before she could get back up to retaliate. "Tsutomu, stop this now!" Tohru threw another needle at her and she collapsed, her waist down numb. "What happened this time you two?" Tohru put her hands on her hips, fighting a sense of déjà vu.

"It was that hippie's fault! Her and that talk about 'true love' and all that shit. I have to beat that stupid idea of hers out! Let me at her!" The Swan bit out, removing the needle and throwing it at Tohru's feet.

"You won't move for at least another hour. Wyldekat, any comments?" She asked, considerably softer with the darker girl. Tohru stooped down and picked up the pair of needles to throw away later.

"I-I'm sorry, maybe I sh-should be locked up!" she started sobbing, but didn't bother to even wipe her tears.

"It's okay, we're all different here and we should respect that, not fight over who's pack leader." Tohru turned to the rest of the girls, "we are not Yankee!" she said with all seriousness needed.

"Kyo, we have a ride waiting for us, right?"

Kyo nodded and picked up Tohru's considerably heavier bag, "if you're not all Yankee, then what happened?"

Tohru took a last look around the room and sighed, "Wyldekat's a gentle soul. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and was blamed to a hazing, landing her here when she deserves to be free. The only way I got out was to get a job, but it's too late for Wylde though…" Tohru cut off and waved to a peeved detective that was standing by his unmarked.

"Any slower?" he ground out, opening the door for Tohru to step in.

"A butterfly can only beat its wings so fast before creating an unseen hurricane," Tohru said teasingly, buckling herself in.

"Yeah, just don't beat them so slowly that you can't get in any practice before the sting, alright."

"But…" Tohru pouted a little, "didn't I practice enough already today?" he shot her a withering glare and Tohru smiled, "Ooh, Bang-Bang, right."

"A gun? You can't be serious! You can't shoot!" Kyo turned to the driver; "she can't shoot… can she?"

"I'm what they call bait. That's my whole job, to lure criminals to get arrested. Sometimes," Tohru looked into the side mirror that reflected Kyo's face, "sometimes things don't go as planned. One thing I've learned… is that I should expect the person's surface to be different from what they are inside, right?" what was that thing with women and talking about something completely different than what they started talking about? She was so easy to figure out, what was it becoming so difficult now?

* * *

"What you saw back there," Tohru watched the brown car turn into the road away from Shigure's house, "that's all acting. When they see me, they see Kyoko. I guess… I guess they wouldn't let me be me even if I tried. I like that here, I can be myself. Can you just keep this between us?" Kyo nodded and took off his shoes. 

"Were we really talking about anything?" Tohru smiled at his reply, "what's for dinner?" she shrugged.

"I don't know, we haven't gone shopping this week," Tohru gained a thoughtful expression, "but I think there's some chicken in the fridge."

* * *

Birdie and Swan are the same girl, like Yuki calling Kyo 'baka neko'; it's a derogatory. 


	3. Plan

Yay! Chapter three even though practically no one cares because they're waiting for my other stories to be updated! Yay! … Wait, that's not right! Love all of my glory—love me! I need a boyfriend that'll actually take me out! Wahh! And I don't even own anything! The world is a cruel, cruel place!

…

"Did you know that I'm actually the youngest one in the department, even though I worked there the longest?" Tohru asked, climbing up the last steps into the roof.

Kyo turned his head, "no, you haven't told me anything about how you got there."

"This'll be my twelfth year there; I've been doing this since I was five. In fact, that time when that boy in the red cap led me home… that was one of my first jobs, to lure in a child killer into the area so he would be caught… I choked and got lost running away. Embarrassing, right?" Kyo nodded a little as Tohru lied down on the roof casually on her stomach, her arms crossed over the center beam. "Have you ever acted before?"

"No, not really," Kyo mumbled, settling into his usual position.

"What I'm going to be doing is like acting, but it's different every time. But like all plays, there are words you have to learn, lines to memorize. 'Pet' is one of them. If anyone asks you on the street that looks Yankee, tell her you're Butterfly's. They'll back off if they know anything. You could say mom and the Ladies had a lot of respect on the streets.

"Whenever I do things like this, I have Hana and Uo as backup. Hana stays in the shadows or roofs, and Uo plays along about half a block down the street. You'll be in the car so nothing dangerous happens, but you'll still hear me though the headset." Tohru laughed slightly, "Prostitutes can be a dangerous bunch if you're a guy!" Kyo looked about ready to protest. "I don't want either a cat or a naked teenager running through the district… it'd be distracting at best and I wouldn't be concentrating on work. The district is a very… physical place."

"What about when, if, you actually attract this guy?" Kyo asked, grabbing the manila folder to look at the artist rendering.

"I'm going to either lead him into one of the sex houses or into an alleyway and do my 'technique'… like a regular would do… he faints and you show up and pretend to be buddy-buddy with him until we get him into the car. I'll lick my wounds at the station and then we'll get back home in time for homework and bed." Tohru shrugged, but Kyo still felt uneasy about it.

"But didn't your uncle or whatever get shot or something?"

"That's where the sex house or alleyway comes in. Hana and Uo can easily watch the alley and you need and ID to get in the sex houses. Usually the girls belong to a certain house and escort the men to that house, so I'll have to give the Mama a heads-up about you." Tohru laughed lightly and closed her eyes, "you'll have to have a code name… like mine is blue butterfly… how about Ms. Kitty?"

"Aw, hell no!" Kyo jumped up and stomped his foot. "I ain't goin' into some place like that with a sissy-ass name like that!"

"But it'll be perfect! If you have a masculine name, it could blow the entire operation."

"Come on and fight me for it then! You have a pussy punch (Shigure rolled his eyes at the unintended pun from his place on the ladder), but I saw you there, you must know how to fight!"

Tohru shook her head, "what would your code name be then?" she didn't even stand up to meet Kyo's challenge, but looked at the ladder instead.

"What about Macho-Neko."

Tohru deadpanned. "With your ego…Sesshoumaru?"

"That's a cartoon character! Mr. Macho!" Kyo struck a pose.

"The Stud…" Tohru shrugged.

"…naw!" Kyo and Tohru agreed at the same time. Tohru went back to the ladder and watched it move subtlety again.

Tohru grinned and put a finger to her lips in a silent motion before starting to crawl over to the ladder, "well, at least you don't have a fluffy name like…" Tohru stuck her head over the ledge, scaring Shigure, "hi Inuyasha!"

"Ahh!" Shigure yelped and pulled back, accidentally knocking the ladder so it started to fall backward, Tohru attempted to grab the ladder, but it was too late for Shigure, who ended up landing on his back on the lawn. Good thing they had de-rocked the lawn (Kyo's doing) and Shigure was already halfway down in the first place.

"Are you alright Shigure-san?" Tohru called, looking down at the dog.

After a few moments, he took in a startled breath and wheezed, "I'm fine Tohru-kun."

"Should I call Hatori-san for you?" Tohru started down the ladder, forgetting about the school mini-skirt that she still wore.

"I-I'll be fine." Shigure sat up, holding his back, "but I'll need a chiropractor soon though…" he mumbled, wincing.

"Deserved that for spying on us." Kyo 'humph'ed, grabbing the folder and following Tohru down the ladder.

"Shippou. If you don't like the other one, I'll call you Shippou."

"Are you calling me weak?" Kyo was practically whimpering.

"Ms. Kitty it is!"

"You've been talking with Shigure again!"

"Neko-de." Tohru replied, looking over her shoulder.

"What?"

"Cat claws… it's a weapon that replaces punches." Tohru shrugged and walked up to her room with Kyo following.

Tohru dumped out her pack and put something on her hands, "see, neko-de."

"They're just rings," Tohru made fists that left three two-inch blades sticking between her fingers on each hand, "oh… that'd hurt. Isn't that cheating?"

Tohru pulled a right-straight over Kyo's left shoulder, "street fighting and martial arts are completely different. There's no 'time-outs,' no 'cheating,' it's all free-game. Some of them have formal training, but it doesn't' matter out here." Putting away the various other pointy objects, Tohru sighed, "I don't like fighting, and Mom didn't like me fighting either. But I know enough to stay alive. Oh! I should tell Shigure that Uo and Hana are going to spend tomorrow night before I forget!" Tohru ran out the door, forgetting to take off her neko-de.

"But it's a weeknight!" Kyo called back, closing Tohru's door behind himself.

"All the better reason!" Tohru winked and knocked on Shigure's door, getting a groan in response.

"Come in Tohru-kun." Tohru hesitated a moment before sliding the door open to reveal Shigure with one hand on his back and another writing on his manuscript.

"Sorry about that Shigure-san, I didn't think you would fall off" Shigure gave a reassuring smile before setting his brush down.

"Karma made me fall; it's not your fault… ooh… a little to the left." Tohru kneeled behind Shigure and started giving him a shoulder massage while coaxing him to lie on his stomach.

"Mom taught me how to do this after she got back from work." Tohru felt each vertebrae for alignment, "is it okay for Hana and Uo to spend the night tomorrow?" she asked, finding a particularly mis-aligned section.

"Ow!" Shigure hissed before relaxing again. "Yes, the girls can come over, but don't forget you have school tomorrow."

"I know, we won't stay up too late." Tohru promised, finishing her first sweep.

"You're better than a misuse! My little flower, can you go a little lower?" Tohru shook her head and started at Shigure's neck again. "Maybe I won't have to hall Hatori after all!"

"You're done, just no jumping off of ladders again, okay?" Shigure sat up and gave a fake pout.

"But I _like_ jumping off roofs, I can almost fly!" Tohru smiled at his little joke.

"Thanks… for everything… goodnight Shigure!"

"Why do you want the girls over, Honda-kun?" Yuki asked, leaning outside Shigure's door.

"To plan. After last time…" Tohru drifted off and shook her head, "there's a reason Uo doesn't wear anything higher than her knees." Guilt pressed on Tohru's face as she fingered the neko-de before taking them off.

"Then why don't I come as backup for you?" Yuki offered, following Tohru to the front room.

"Because I don't want you to get hurt." Came Tohru's immediate reply. Sighing, Tohru opened one of the shoji screens and stared at the surrounding trees. "I'm barely sure that Kyo should even come with how things might go. Normally," Tohru turned to face Yuki, tears in her eyes, "I would want all the help I can get, but I don't want to get anybody hurt. I… Mom and I, have hurt so many people doing this. That I just want it to stop."

"Then why don't you?"

"Because I can't. 'Sins of the mother' I guess."

"If you want out so badly, why can't I go with you?" Yuki insisted, leaning into Tohru.

"I don't like this, but I'll tell you the truth: you're too clean-cut for this. If people were to find out that you were involved, your reputation would be shot! No only would you be shut out at school, but the law would get involved with your family and then everything would blow up in our faces!" Tohru thumped her head against the door frame and covered her eyes. "Unless…"

"Unless what?" Yuki urged, not seeing a certain creature outside.

"Unless you want to dress in drag-"

"No!"

"Oh, my dear brother! I just knew that you would see the light one day!" Ayame cheered, practically crushing Yuki from behind.

"Let me go, you ingrate!" Yuki seethed, turning to stone.

"Now, now. Don't be so harsh little brother!" Aya beamed, practically lighting up the entire room.

"How long are you staying this time Ayame-san?" Tohru smiled.

"Alas, I was just in the neighborhood when I got a phone call from a detective at the police department… Why Tohru, you're looking a bit flushed, maybe you should lie down and I'll call Hatori!" indeed, Tohru had taken on a pale look at the mention of the police.

"n-no! I'm fine!" Tohru laughed nervously, "I-I mean, why would I be worried about the police and-and…"

"Ah, yes, the detective said that he wanted me to do a little job for one of his girls—which most of their outfits are designed exclusively by moi—and make sure that her costume fits perfectly. The funny thing is—"

"Aya!" Shigure stood at the door with his hands wide open.

"Gure-san!" Ayame ran into Shigure's arms and gave his cousin a hug.

The whole scene was quiet before, "all right!" Aya stepped back and they gave each other a thumbs-up.

"The funny thing is," Aya sat back down between the teenagers and used Yuki as an arm rest, "the good detective gave me this address. Did Kyo do anything that I should know about?"

Tohru's color came back, "no, I think the detective was talking about me Ayame-san. I work for the police sometimes and the costume for this mission needs a few adjustments before next Friday."

"Hmm… I see." Aya didn't smile as he visually took Tohru's measurements. "Well, lets see what we can do and while I'm doing that, you can tell me how you got mixed up with the police!" he smiled and helped Tohru to her feet and gently shoved her to the stairs.

(o)

It's not that great, but I'm at least updating. What'll happen next? Even I don't know! Dark


	4. Guns

I don't own Fruits Basket (I forget to do that!)

Chapter 4: costumes and guns

"Okay, you can come in now!" Tohru called from her room. Ayame stepped in and gasped.

"This isn't fair for our princess! Not fair at all!" luckily, Ayame shut the door behind himself; unluckily, Yuki saw enough to last him the next year.

"It's bad, isn't it? I didn't really have a choice—given my mission and all—but I usually have a different costume." Tohru rambled, allowing Ayame to make small adjustments here and there: re-tying the lace, tugging an arm seam straight…

"Do you have everything on for your mission?" Ayame asked, taking out his small sewing kit.

"Everything but my weapons." Tohru gestured to the small pile on the bed.

Ayame whistled lowly, "well, I would suggest you put on the ones tat you'll take on this one. How long have you been doing this type of stuff?"

"I've been doing this all my life, but this is only my second time doing this type of mission." Tohru stroked one of her needles, repositioning it in the holder.

"Then you must have seen some of my other outfits! Don't they look fabulous!" Ayame changed the subject, snipping a loose thread.

"Oh, yes! They all look wonderful, and the girls love them also! You really caught what they wanted in each one! Wylde really likes hers, especially that she can keep her modesty with it."

"Where have I heard that name before? Can you describe her costume?"

"A hippie. At least, that's what everyone else calls it."

"Ah, yes. Such a sweet girl, you should get to know her, it doesn't look like many of the others like her too much." Ayame took out a roll of lace trim and compared it in several places.

"Yes, most of the girls don't think she belongs there. She's really smart when it comes to conversation though. She would have been better as a hostage negotiator, that's for sure."

"If you needed money, you could have asked…"

"N-no! I couldn't do that! When I moved in her I said no money, and I meant it! I just couldn't take your family's money!" Tohru panicked and started shaking her head frantically.

Ayame laughed and put his hand on Tohru's head, "don't worry, you're practically family and we wouldn't leave one of our own on the streets, would we?"

Tohru stopped, shocked at what she heard. Family? She was an orphan, how could she be family? She worked for them, cooked for them in exchange for room, and they would call her family?

"Hey now, a pretty face like yours shouldn't cry," Ayame wiped the liquid off with his thumb, "and besides, you wouldn't want to ruin my magnificent creation, would you?" Tohru gave a small smile and nodded, now she would work extra hard not to disappoint the Sohma!

* * *

Lunchtime. It wasn't as if something could happen at any moment, but Tohru was the exact definition of jumpy. "Are you okay Tohru-kun?" Momiji asked, watching Tohru close her hers and listen for the fifth time that minute.

"It's nothing." Tohru gave an embarrassed grin, "I just thought I heard someone in the bushes." The boys exchanged looks and Kyo shrugged.

"Your imagination is getting to you." Tohru nodded and set aside a bread roll.

The wind shook some leaves off the trees and one landed on Tohru's head, much to Uo's chagrin. Tohru shook off the leaf with a smile and Hana nodded, setting aside her roll also. "Bang," Tohru turned her head up to the tree, "you're dead Wylde. I bet you haven't' had anything to eat either. Why don't' you come down and join us?" the girl identified as Wylde looked down in shock, her climb was perfectly silent! She nodded slowly and dropped down into the middle of the bunny-shaped blanket that the group was sitting on.

"I shouldn't be here too long, but I'll eat if you want me to." Wylde looked around nervously before kneeling halfway behind Tohru and Uo. Tohru nodded and handed over her roll. Wylde took it gratefully and tore off large chunks at a time. The others were worried that she would choke sometime.

Tohru placed her hand over the bread gently, "we're not like there, we won't take your food."

"Th-thank you… Blue," Wylde gave a small smile and slowed down her chewing.

"Blue?" Yuki asked, arriving late from presidential duties.

"Long story. It's a code name, really. Don't worry about it." Tohru brushed it off with a small blush. "Speaking of… they don't let you out without a reason, so…"

"The date's been moved up." Wylde flinched slightly, as if she was going to be hit, "so you have to go to the range this afternoon." Tohru signed and nodded. Hana handed over her roll and Wylde grabbed it quickly.

"That's okay. I'm not surprised really." Tohru smiled and waited until Wylde finished before standing up and offering her hand. "I would suggest that you get back before you get into too much trouble, okay?" Wylde took her hand, shocked at the rare kindness, and stood. Tohru pulled her into a brief embrace, "don't be afraid to get out sometime, okay?" she whispered into her ear.

Uo and Hana stood up also and gave Wylde small hugs also. "Up 'n' over?" Uo suggested, grasping her hands together. Tohru nodded while Hana watched out for teachers. Tohru and Uo formed a four-handed brace that Wylde stepped on. On the third count, the girls pulled up and Wylde flipped over the fence nearly-flawlessly, only landing slightly off-balance and falling into the bush that graced the far side of the chain-link.

After recovering from her none-too-graceful landing, Wylde gave one wave and disappeared into the bushes.

"So… what's 'the range'?" Kyo asked, having somewhat of a clue from the previous day's car ride.

Tohru held her hand up like she held her hand weapons, closed into a fist. "You saw the training center already," she straightened her indeed finger and pointed at Kyo, "bang. That's what the range is for: target practice." Momiji's eyes widened as he leaned away slightly. Haru shrugged and Yuki looked away to hide his shock.

"Have you renewed your license?" Hana asked, digging into her potato chips.

"Not yet, but I'm still proficient."

"What's 'proficient'? Hitting the side of a barn?" Kyo grinned.

Tohru closed her eyed and sighed. "Don't judge until you see," she opened her eyes with a silent challenge. "It may be something you might like to see."

* * *

"Now _why_ are we here again?" Kyo crossed his arms and followed Tohru down a covered walkway. Out of morbid curiosity, the entire high-school Sohma were following Tohru though the firing range; which consisted of a covered walkway behind the station with targets that were strung on wires at various distances across the field.

"The closer ones are for close range, further for far range. The papers for guns and the hay bales behind it are for the arrows. Wanna try?" Tohru gestured to a high-tech bow with arrows or a handgun that was strapped to her thigh. "I can show you both."

"I'll try your gun." Haru shrugged with his hand out. Tohru nodded and pinned up a regular target.

"Have…"

"Yeah, yeah. Point and pull the trigger, I got it." Haru didn't leave any room for argument as he snapped the ear mufflers into place and took a very movie-like stance with the gun, holding it straight out from the side of his body with his arm locked and only one hand holding the gun.

Tohru cringed, but didn't correct Haru. She shook her head as nearly all but the first shot went wild. Tapping Haru on the shoulder, Tohru held her hand up for Haru to give up the gun. Slumping slightly, he handed off the weapon handle-first. "Not bad, but how's your arm doing? Sore right?" Haru nodded and Tohru brought in the target, seeing one nick in the outer ring. Nodding to herself, Tohru decided not to waste another target and put the same one back up after marking that the hole was Haru's. "The kickback is what happened, and you locked your arm. Brace your hand with your other hand and don't lock your elbow next time—like this." Tohru shot off a few rounds, hitting the target each time. "Do you want to try again Haru, or are you going to let someone else have a go." Tohru smiled at Momiji, who had his hand raised and shaking around, trying to get her attention.

"Me! I wanna go next! Pick me, pick me!" Haru shrugged and stepped back, rubbing his sore arm. Tohru nodded and brought in the target again, marking her holes before pinning it back up. Momiji stepped up and mimicked Tohru's stance with the gun. Frowning slightly, Tohru realized that the shorter rabbit had suddenly grown taller and reached around to adjust his hold so he wouldn't get a gun burn from firing. Hatori would have a field day if she let that happen. Tohru nodded and stepped back, allowing the rabbit to shoot off his rounds. All but one of his bullets hit the target.

"Have you fired a gun before?" Tohru asked seriously, pressing the button to bring in the target. Momiji shook his head and put the gun down on the table before stepping back.

"No, that was my first time Tohru." Momiji said, hanging his head slightly.

"Okay." Tohru raised Momiji's chin, "it's just that not every first-timer gets that many shots hitting the target on their first try, that's all." Tohru gave a smile, resisting the urge to hug the blonde boy. Turning back to the target, she held it up to the light. It was starting to look like Swiss cheese, thus time to replace the target. "Sohma-kun? Kyo-kun? You guys trying or are you just going to watch?"

"No thank you Honda-san, I am just surprised that you would know about guns, that's all." Yuki complemented, a fair pit paler than he usually was. Kyo shrugged, but didn't say anything to the point of offering to try.

Seeing that the boys were done and fairly bored with her handgun, Tohru shrugged and packed the weapon away. Looking at the clock she sighed. She had signed up (or more like her boss did) for an hour on the range and had a grand total of… 37 minutes left. "You can go if you want; I'm just going to practice with this thing," she gestured to a bow on her back, "for the rest of the hour." Expecting them to leave, Tohru unstrapped the bow and placed a target arrow in the notch. Thinking about it, Tohru admitted that it wasn't the most practical weapon in a modern fight, but it gave her something to do that was a challenge. She stretched the string as far as she could, her arm shaking with the tension, and released. The arrow flew, yes, but bounced off the target hay bale to land flat on the ground. She refused to look around, knowing, just knowing that they were trying not to laugh at her, even though they didn't make a sound.

"Go ahead and laugh, I know I can't shoot." Tohru commented mulishly over her shoulder, grabbing another bolt to try with. This new one didn't fare much better.

"Try aiming higher so it'll hit at a different angle." Yuki offered up softly from the wall where he and the other boys were leaning againsst. Blushing, she drew back her third bold at a higher angle and it flew in a relatively smooth arc, sticking for a brief time before falling to the ground. An improvement, not much of one, but one nonetheless. In a resigned way, Tohru pulled another bolt, this time sticking in the ale.

"Oh, hey!" a voice called from the opposite end of the hall, half drowned out by the gunshots going off. Tohru turned, recognizing the voice. A man in a Hawaiian shirt smiled and waved, jogging up to the teen girl. "Didn't think they were telling' the truth when they said you'd be here, Blue." The 25ish man leaned against the wall separating the shootings stalls and crossed his arms. "Have some ballistic gel 'n' bone whipped up and was wondering if you'd be game?" Tohru nodded and unstrung her bow.

"What're you investigating this time?" Tohru asked, smiling at the boys so that they would follow.

"Nothin' much, just some new toys." Tohru nodded and opened the door for all of the boys to pass before letting it swing shut. The man led them to an indoor room, filled with various artifacts of a more dangerous degree.

"What type of new toys?" Tohru asked with an inflection in her voice that the boys didn't necessarily know that she could have. A dangerous glee was hidden under the carefully modest words.

"Guns mostly, and a new way to use those ever-lethal pencils!" the man joked, plucking a relatively large automatic pistol off the wall and handing it to Tohru.

"You never did like paperwork, did you?" Tohru joked back, "no wonder you're so far behind on it!" the man blushed and turned away, gesturing to a block of what looked like amber colored jell-o in the shape of a body with a skeleton infused in the proper places.

"That's X-sama. In this case, he was shot in the inner thigh," the man paused to wince, feeling sympathy for 'X-sama,' "and the higher-ups are wondering if he shot himself, there's a better way to become a eunuch, or if someone else shot him and missed their target."

Tohru coughed, covering up her blush, and walked up to the jell-o man. "Hello X-sama, I'm going to be your firing squad today. Don't worry, I don't usually miss unless it's on purpose." With that, she gave a small bow and stepped back to a tape line in the floor, aimed and fired. "Home run," Tohru said quietly, taking the rest of the bullets out of the gun and going up to inspect her hole. She grabbed one of the colored dowels and stuck it in the hole, indicating the angle and depth the bullet went.

"Not exactly. X-sama was supposed to have an angle like this:" he stuck a differently colored dowel into the leg at a completely different angle. Tohru nodded and looked at the difference in the angles. "So he shot himself then."

"No, he didn't." Tohru said, positioning herself with the same angle the jell-o man was. Taking a third dowel, she angled her own thigh to point the dowel where the bullet supposedly entered. "The body's in the wrong position, let me show you." She positioned the jell-o's legs so the bullet would hit in the right place. "X-sama was running when he was shot. And most likely, depending on what surface he was running on, had some sort of skid mark when he landed and bled out, dying."

"But I didn't—"

"I know. But I watch the news and X-sama was in a street fight, supposedly, two days ago. Or…" the man winced, "something like this could have happened." Tohru took the taller man's shirt in her fist and looped her leg around one of his, throwing him off balance. She stuck the dowel in his thigh where the bullet went in. "if I was taller than you, more powerful, and holding a gun to one of your major blood veins in this position, you'd listen, right?" he nodded and Tohru let go, letting the man fall to his butt. "You're smart Hiraku, but I know the streets… and more than enough fighters." Tohru held her hand out and helped Hiraku to his feet. "And just a warning: since your promotion, the girls have been eyeing you. If you want one, I would suggest not wearing that shirt anytime soon at work again."

The boy blushed and turned away, hanging up the pistol again. "Thanks."

Tohru nodded and went back to the doors and the other boys. "Anytime. It was nice to see you too." She didn't see, but Hiraku's blush became brighter as she left the doors swinging.

* * *

"What did you think of the gun range Kyo?" Tohru asked, sitting down beside him on the roof, looking out at the stars and surrounding forest. Once they had gotten back home, Tohru was once again the 'innocent little orphan girl.' Kyo found the change in demeanors from one place to another disturbing slightly.

"You know how to use a gun." Kyo admitted, turning away slightly. The smile on Tohru's face fell and she clasped her hands under her knees.

"I stand by the fact that I don't really like violence, but sometimes it's necessary, isn't it?" Tohru asked quietly, remembering all the fights that Kyo and Yuki had on an almost daily basis, but not as frequently or damaging as they were originally.

"Have you ever shot anyone?" the silence in his conviction was deafening.

"I would like to say that I haven't, but apparently I don't lie very well." Tohru gave a half-hearted smile at the attempt at a joke. "But it didn't kill them though… sometimes I wonder if it would have been better if it had. They have life in jail, but they'll get out early if they're good enough. I was twelve at the time." Kyo had rolled back onto his back and looked over at Tohru.

"Who's the real you? Tohru or Blue?"

"We're both real, I act sometimes like the tough chick they think I am at the station, and I act sometimes like I don't know anything here. I hate doing that, but sometimes it's easier to pretend to be oblivious, don't you think so?" Kyo shrugged and looked up at the stars, seeming to dismiss Tohru's presence.

"…it's not good to B.S. about being true to yourself when you don't follow your own advice." Kyo admonished, not bothering to look away from the stars.

Tohru nodded in agreement, "okay, I'll try to follow my own advice… but it won't be easy after this long." She got up to leave and was at the top of the ladder before Kyo spoke again:

"You knew there was a house out here, didn't you?" Tohru nodded.

"But I didn't know that Sohma-kun lived out here, or that I get caught up in your family by pitching a tent in your forest." She laughed lightly, "If you would have told me what the consequence of pitching my tent there was, I would have called the police on you for being a stalker!"

Well, it's Thanksgiving in America and I have the week off. I might as well spend it updating (I have nothing else to do!). Ryoko: tell your sister to stay strong. Dark


	5. Sleepover

It should be obvious by now that I do not, nor shall ever own Fruits Basket.

Chapter 5: sleepover.

"Are your parents okay about you guys helping me?" Tohru asked, sitting down the tea set on the low table in her bedroom.

Uo shrugged. "It's not like he can stop me anyway. Dad's so plastered that he doesn't know the difference between me an' mom sometimes."

"Megumi and my parents wish us luck. Grandmother is sewing a cloak for you to wear afterwards."

Tohru smiled somewhat, "I'm sorry about this, but it wasn't my choice. Can you tell Grandmother that it's in two days instead of next Friday? I guess they didn't want any more victims to pop up while they were waiting for me to get off my butt."

Hana nodded, "I have informed them and they are worried, but send their well-wishes."

Tohru smiled in relief, pouring tea for the three of them. "Tell them thank you for me. I wouldn't know what I'd do without their help sometimes.

"I will."

"Argh!" Uo fluffed her hair in frustration. "What are we waiting for? Let's just get this over with already!"

Tohru sipped her strawberry tea, "we're waiting for Kyo to get back from practice so that he can be part of the planning."

"So kitty-boy is coming then, huh?" Uo smirked, throwing her tea back like it was a shot of liquor. Grimacing, she tried to soothe her scalded tongue.

"He wanted to come," Tohru looked uncomfortable, "but he's only going to show up to help if it becomes an emergency. This is his first time helping, so it would be better to have him stand back." The girls nodded in grim agreement before Uo turned to Hana.

"Did you bring the book?" Hana nodded and walked over to her overnight bag, pulling out a large tome and placed it on the table.

"Megumi held it in his collection for us. He hasn't touched it."

"Good. We should get started before kitty-boy gets back then." Uo said, pulling the book toward herself and opening to a bookmarked page. Tohru put her hand on the book, shutting it.

"We should wait for Kyo-kun. He should be part of the ceremony also." Tohru insisted, placing the book under the table.

The other two gave Tohru a confused look but agreed anyway. About the spells and such, Tohru often knew the best way to pull them off. At least most of the time. Spreading out a large detailed map of Tokyo, Tohru set their full tea cups in three corners and the tea pot in the fourth, setting the boundaries of the red light district. "This is where we'll be working. The guy," Tohru set the manila folder for the other two to read, "has hit in these places and the police estimate that he's going to strike here next." She pointed out places where she put small red sticker dots. Pulling out a piece of paper with a hand-drawn map on it, Tohru pointed to an intersection. "I'm going to be standing here," she traced her finger to the corner across the street, "Uo-chan is going to be here and Hana-chan will be on this roof corner," Tohru traced her finger between two buildings and onto the roof of one of them. "This way, you can keep an eye on both of us, okay Hana-chan?" Hana nodded in agreement as Tohru put a small flower on the building, a fish on one corner and an onigiri on the opposite corner.

"So where's orangey and the detective gonna be?" Uo asked, looking at the hand-drawn map.

Tohru traced her finger along a complex set of turns on the street. "They'll go along this route that I've marked out in green. That means that they'll lap around in front of us every half-hour or so, but it'll only take a few minutes if the call goes up, how's that sound?" Uo sat back, against Tohru's bed, crossing her arms in grudging acceptance.

"He'd better not get in our way Tohru-chan. Carrot-top's your responsibility. You let him come along." Tohru nodded, absently tracing the green marked pathway. "Is Princey coming also?"

"No. I can hold myself against all the girls at the station, but the fan club can be just vicious. I'd rather keep my skin than have them attack me for swaying him toward the forces of evil that the District is… and he refuses to dress in drag." The other two burst out laughing, remembering their first year cultural festival where the upper class girls gave Yuki a dress to wear.

"Does he still have that dress?" Uo asked, trying to stop her giggles.

"No…"Tohru sighed dramatically, pouring herself another cup of tea, "but it made a fantastic bonfire though." The three started laughing again, picturing the perfect Prince Yuki in war paint, dancing around a fire and chanting 'burn, dreaded dress, burn!'

"It was such a nice dress though." Hana sighed, he hand pressed to her cheek. Tohru nodded and poured more tea into Hana's cup.

"I offered to keep it, but he said no and burned it after dark. If I would have known he would have done that, I don't know if I would have grabbed marshmallows from the store, or hid the dress!"

"Hid the dress! Then he could have staked out that corner instead of me!" Uo joked, drinking her second cup of tea.

Tohru shrugged, hearing the front door slam shut. "Kyo-kun's home. When he gets done with his shower, then we can start on…"

"I will set out the bowls then, Tohru," Hana offered, standing up and setting a bowl with a tea candle on each surface. The candles were various colors and gave off different colored flames as Uo followed behind and lit each one with her lighter.

"Heh, never thought smoking would have a good point, huh?" Uo smirked, lighting the last candle and watched the blue flame with green sparks dance. With the bowls cupped underneath, the flames lit up the entire room and made different spirals of color on the ceiling.

Rolling up the maps for later, Tohru placed them under the table and took out the book and a slightly larger bowl. "I still think it's a nasty habit though. And think of how messed up your body is without the nicotine on top of that."

"Wasn't my fault I was sick when I was a kid. I think some of those drugs were more harmful than helpful back then."

"That happens a lot. Just be glad that they didn't end up crippling you. I saw some kid the other day on the news where he had a bad reaction between two of his pills and he almost died because of a seizure. He's not expected to walk again."

"Ouch. That sucks." Tohru nodded in agreement, idly flipping through the different spells and their own notes in the margins.

"I'm surprised that we didn't throw this one out…" Tohru murmured, tracing the red lettering that titled the page.

"Which one?" Uo asked, peeking over Tohru's shoulder.

"'Love's First Kiss,'" Tohru read out loud, all three grimacing.

"Hey, did we ever say sorry to you?" Uo asked in a subdued manner.

"Yes, and I would have forgiven you even if you didn't. It was my idea in the first place, remember." Tohru smiled, "and besides, it only affected me and it helps sometimes, you know?"

"Does the spell work?" Hana asked, watching as Tohru's face turned several shades of red.

"I-I wouldn't know."

"Oh, poor Tohru, no kisses from the boys!" the two gave Tohru a hug, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Untangling herself from the other two, Tohru answered her door and allowed an uncomfortable looking Kyo in. Looking around, he didn't know what to think of the various candles that glowed in the darkened room. Crossing his arms, he hid a small shudder as the hairs on the back of his neck rose.

Uo smirked, catching on Kyo's discomfort. "Welcome to our lair," she whispered in his ear, "home of spells, curses and general mal-intent—"

"Uo-chan!" Tohru, "are you trying to scare him?" she was met with nods from both girls. Rolling her eyes, she opened the book to the right page and set it in front of the bowl in the middle of the table.

"Don't worry, they don't bite," Tohru cringed, "often." Uo gave a grin and Kyo shuddered, trying to back up. "You wanted to help, didn't you?" Tohru asked, not turning to face Kyo. "Then sit down. I promise that nothing permanent—I hope—will happen."

"What do you mean 'you hope'?" Kyo asked, narrowing his eyes as he sat down to Tohru's left. "Ow! Jeez, what was that for?" he rubbed his head from where Uo had plucked some of his hairs.

"Well," Tohru untangled a few hairs from her hairbrush and put them into the bowl with Kyo's hairs, "it all depends on different things, like the relation of the people involved, how experienced they are casting the spell, the medium used, and older long-standing spells." 'And curses' Tohru left the words hanging for Kyo's sake. Her explanation didn't help in the least to ease his uneasy feelings.

"So you're new at this!?" Kyo yelped as Uo plucked another hair. "Stop doing that Yankee!"

"Sorry, I dropped your first ones," she drawled, making a show to put his hairs into the bowl.

"We have done this particular spell and others before. But never with a male—or Sohma—before." Hana explained, carefully unwinding a long black hair from her comb. "Your denpa waves are… different. The spell might turn out interesting." She made a show of staring into Kyo's catlike red eyes.

"Hana-chan, you're scaring Kyo-kun." Tohru admonished gently, turning off her overhead light and side table lamps. The effect was an eerie swirl of pale color, distorting everything from their daytime forms. Sitting back down at the table, Tohru lit a tapered candle in each of the corners before taking Uo's and Kyo's hands. Hana took Kyo and Uo's other hands so that they made a circle. "what we're doing, Kyo-kun, is making a spirit connection that'll last—hopefully—until we release it after the sting's done. All it'll do is make it easier to pinpoint each other with our thoughts," Tohru looked sheepish and blushed, "at least, that's the best way to describe it. You'll see." Humming, she released her right hand and used a dowel to stir the hairs.

"We summon the east." Hana started.

"We summon the west." Tohru continued.

"South, we request your presence." Uo called out, and then looked at Kyo sheepishly.

"North, we need your help?" Kyo spoke, completely confused. Tohru smiled and squeezed his hand gently in approval. After a few silent moments, Tohru leaned over and whispered in Kyo's ear.

"Genbu!" he yelped, embarrassed that he had held up the ceremony.

"Suzaku!" Uo called, the red flame beside her seemed to glow brighter

"Byakko!" Tohru's skin tinted blue as her candle's flame jumped.

"Seiryu," Hana became slightly paler as the white light glowed on her skin, opposite of Kyo's perceived artificial tan.

"We humbly request of the guardians their protection in our endeavor, for we are unsure of the conclusions." Tohru prayed, pulling out a blonde, black and red hair, tying them together tight around her wrist. Each of the girls took one of each other's hairs and did the same thing, leaving three long hairs in the bowl for Kyo. Nervously, he reached in and wrapped the hairs together before tying them underneath his beaded bracelet. The hairs seemed to meld together, forming a single strand with no knot on it.

"What the?" he murmured, feeling a small shock as the strand touched the bracelet. Looking over at Kyo, Tohru's mouth flashed into a frown momentarily before she grabbed his hand. The others took the cue and joined hands also.

"We thank you for your assistance, please bless us and release us from the circle."

Hana started up the cue again, "release us from the East."

"Release us from the West."

"Release us from the South."

Kyo hesitated again before repeating what the girls said, "Release us from the North."

The girls dropped hands and Tohru smiled widely. "You did great!" she hardly restrained herself from hugging the cat. "Are you okay, you look a little green."

"I-I'm fine. Just don't do that again without warning me." Kyo thumped Tohru on the head and a slight twinge of pain spasmed on his forehead. "What the?" Kyo muttered, rubbing his forehead where he hit Tohru.

"It is good to see that the spell worked." Hana commented from where she was pinching out candles. "As long as nothing very harmful happens, there is nothing to worry about, ne?"

"That means no fighting until next week, eh kitty-boy?" Uo teased, an undertone of a threat floating on her voice.

"And no more hitting Tohru-kun," Hana put in her two cents.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Kyo rubbed his head until the small twinge of pain dissipated. He didn't think that he hit _that_ hard. He'd have to be careful if just by tapping Tohru he'd get a headache.

'_More than just pain carries through the connection, Kyo-kun_,' Tohru's voice floated through his mind as she sat down on her bed, '_so be careful_.' Looking around wildly, Kyo pinned Tohru with a look and she nodded in acknowledgement, seeing that her message got through.

"How'd you do that?" Kyo demanded, sitting down on her desk chair.

'_Practice_,' Tohru hummed and crossed her legs as she swung them over the edge of the bed. Curious, he touched Hana and Uo's minds, only to be met with a chaotic barrier and a splitting headache. "I forgot to warn you, with practice of mind-speech comes the practice of mind barriers." She said apologetically, rubbing Kyo's temples gently.

"Gee, thanks for the warning…" he muttered, cringing internally.

"This is your first time doing this, that's why I don't have my shield up around you," '_So we can speak freely,_' Tohru let loose a soothing sound as she touched heads with Kyo. "With the barrier up, we can't feel each other's pain or thoughts as much," '_like locking your bedroom door._' "I'll help you train while we're waiting around for the mission." '_So you can keep your secret._' "Okay?" Kyo nodded, leaning back slightly.

"Like this?" Kyo tentatively touched Tohru's mind and she closed her eyes to embrace it. Nodding, she released a tendril of power to stroke his thought.

"Good, try speaking now." Tohru winced slightly as his first thought came through as a ball of static emotion that flashed the colors of confusion and fear.

"Tea?" Uo asked, gesturing to the empty tea pot on the table.

"Eh, what?" Tohru snapped out of her concentration to focus on Uo. "Oh!" she exclaimed, seeing the empty tea pot. "I'll go get some more! Do you want any snacks too? I think there's some left over onigiri from earlier if you want."

"That would be fine Tohru-chan, thank you." Hana smiled, brushing out her hair. The girls watched her go before pinning Kyo with a glare. "I finally figured it out."

"What? What are you talking about?" Kyo asked, standing up in a defensive stance.

"What, no who you are, Kyo Sohma," Hana walked toward the cat, "and all the rest of the Sohma too."

"What are you talking about? There's nothing different about us! They're just nick names!" Hana nodded and smiled sweetly, stroking his cheek.

"Denying something, Kyo Sohma, only makes it that much more the truth. Don't you agree Uo-chan?" Uo nodded and walked over to sit on the end of Tohru's bed.

"It just makes sense now, with the fights and names and all… and the hair," she commented after a moment. "Did you know that it was her favorite story as a kid, and her least favorite also? The last time we came over, that sleepover remember, you guys would disappear and Tohru's 'pets' would all-of-a-sudden appear out of nowhere." Uo mused, her finger to her chin, studying Kyo's changing facial expressions. "Tell me, does it hurt?"

"I don't have any clue about what the heck you're talkin' about Yankee!" Kyo hissed, slipping into a defensive position the best he could while he was cornered.

"So it does," Hana whispered, watching Kyo's eyes, "I would suggest not activating your curse within the next few days if you can help it. If you hurt Tohru-chan, we can and will do worse." Electricity snapped at the ends of Hana's loose hair, casting an ethereal glow around her. Kyo nodded, backing down.

"Don't worry kitty boy, as long as you don't hurt Tohru-chan, we won't tell anyone, okay?" Uo chirped, flopping down on Tohru's bed. "No, she didn't tell us. You just have _weak barriers_." She smirked, speaking out loud calmly, while booming her voice in Kyo's mind, making his ears ring.

Sitting down, Kyo held his head in his hands, '_what now?_' he groaned to himself. Clips of Akito and Hatori's memory wipe technique flashed through his mind out of fear.

"'What now' is that you calm yourself and trust us. As long as you don't tell on us knowing, you don't have anything to worry about, do you?" Uo thought out loud, staring up at the ceiling. "And we can help you so nothing more slips. All four of us working together is faster than just you and Tohru-chan, ne?"

'_First lesson_,' Hana started, wrapping her mind around Kyo's, '_barriers are only as strong as the creator. I will help you until you can make one of your own._' The mental static that had encroached on Kyo's mind faded away, leaving a sense of silence in its wake.

'_Second lesson_,' Uo picked up, '_is that any mind can be picked through without much effort or notice unless the victim knows what to look for_.' What felt like a needle-like wire threaded through his mind, touching various parts. '_For example, I now know that you've lived at a dojo since you were little and you still can't beat princey!_' Kyo scowled and closed his eyes, wishing away the needle-like probe. The probe faded away briefly to just barely brush his mind. '_That's a start_,' Uo nodded in approval.

'_Next_,' Hana took her turn, her mental probe felt more like a black cloth draped over his mind. '_Find out what Tohru-chan's doing_.' The command was simple, but it would take fine-honing and ignoring the other minds in the house, human or not. Nodding, Kyo closed his eyes and let his mind expand cautiously, not really used to the concept of 'seeing' without his body.

'_A equals the square root of 3 over four cubed…'_

'_High school girls! Pretty fillies in my house, high school girls!_' Kyo shuddered at that and accidentally shoved Shigure into unconsciousness with his mind.

'_Oh, hi Kyo_.' Slight static had mad Kyo's mental body spin in the turbulence of her emotions. Feeling her grimace, Tohru apologized. '_It's the mission, sorry for making you mind-sick about that. Most of the time I'm not that harsh on 'guests.' I'm coming up, okay?_' Kyo felt the weight of the tray that Tohru carried through the connection.

'_Be careful!_'

'_Don't worry_,' she blew him a mental raspberry, '_it's not that heavy_.' Kyo's disapproval flew through the link before he could stop it. Sighing, Tohru looked at the stairs before climbing up them with the tray balanced between her hands.

Kyo retreated back into his mind before touching Tohru's gently. '_I think I made the pervert pass out…_" his embarrassment prevalent through the link.

Tohru nodded and stopped at the top of the stairs to adjust her grip. '_You probably did. I'll see what I can do later_.' Tohru sighed and brushed her mind against Yuki's and Shigure's minds just to make sure that nothing else happened. Yuki looked up sharply, but he didn't recognize the mental touch for what it was. Shigure was out like a light. '_Then again, he needs to learn to sleep when the rest of the world does._' She drawled, opening her bedroom door.

Kyo couldn't help a snort of laughter at the un-Tohru-like comment. "Where'd that one come from?" he asked out loud.

"Everything has a limit when it comes to multi-tasking," she set down the platter, "and patience. Now," she grabbed an onigiri and the map, "we should tell Kyo-kun of the plans, ne?" the others nodded and Tohru unrolled the map. "We're working here, in the red light district." She outlined the area with her finger. "I'm going to stand here, Uo-chan here, Hana-chan here, and you and Detective-san are going to take this green route in the car."

"But what if you get in trouble?" Kyo interjected, a frown marring his face. "You'll get hurt."

Uo snorted, trying to cover her laughter. "I'm more worried about the poor sap that tries to hit on her, not the other way around!"

"Yes, although we do not like it, our little Tohru-chan can look after herself if the need arises." Hana leaned over and gave Tohru a hug.

"It's not further than a five-minute drive away at any time, Kyo-kun. And we have this now if anything really bad happens." Tohru held up her wrist, where a barely discernable strand of dark hair wrapped around her wrist. Frowning, Kyo decided to let it go for now. "Now," Tohru turned back to the map, "who can we talk to, to help?"

"Mama Sakura's pretty nice about these things." Uo suggested, pointing to one building.

"It's too far from the path." Tohru traced the route that it would take. "He'd become impatient or suspicious by then."

"Then what about Mama Tsuki?"

"Too stiff."

"Too old. What about Mama Taiyo?"

"Maybe. Is she finally legal?"

"…no… but what does that have to do with this?" Uo asked, throwing her hand into the air.

"To use their house, putting their girls in danger, we have to pay them compensation."

"It would be unwise to allow the matron that helped us get arrested," Hana reminded Uo. "It has been a while since we have talked to Mama Zugai, has it not?"

Uo shuddered but nodded, "she's definitely the safest person to ask, isn't she?"

"Not the cuddliest in the bunch, but she cares about her girls." Tohru agreed, getting her pastel yellow pajamas out of her drawer. "I'm going to get ready for bed, and then we can start our 'sleepover' okay?" Tohru grinned, heading to the bathroom to change and get ready. Almost as soon as Tohru shut the door, Uo lunged for the closet.

"It's got to be here!" she whispered excitedly, going through hangers of outfits. She pulled out one black and white one, "what the…" she narrowed her eyes and glared at Kyo, "what are you guys doing to her when we're not here?"

Kyo glared at the skimpy maid outfit and scoffed. "The Rat's brother and the pervert thought it would be a good white day gift when Tohru moved in."

"He is the one that did the costumes for our performance, was he not?" Hana asked, inspecting the stitching on the bottom hem of the skirt. "He truly does wonderful craftsmanship." Uo nodded, still glaring at the dress as she put it away.

"Eureka!" she exclaimed, pulling out a shoe box labeled 'blue' that was shoved in the back corner of the closet. Lifting the outfit out of the box by the top of the tube top. "nice. The material's not too worn, and the leather'll stop any blows if anything bad happens."

"It's good that the leather's not worn. I haven't been able to wear that more than a few times ever." Tohru commented, shutting the door behind her and placing her dirty clothes in her hamper. "If it was worn out, then I'd know that some other girl was wearing my clothes."

"I should go now…" Kyo mumbled, standing up.

"You can stay Kyo-kun; we're just going to play Dai Hn Min." Tohru smiled, subtly blocking the doorway. '_And help you practice blocking your mind._' She added silently. "This game, anything goes, bracelets included," she held up her wrist with the hair wrapped around when Kyo glanced at his beads."

"I'm gonna wipe the floor with ya, kitty-boy," Uo taunted, "unless… you're too chicken to play!"

Kyo sat down across from Uo and glared, picking up his cards as Hana doled them out between the four of them. "You're going down, Yankee!"

* * *

Bleh, I had this written a while ago, but not the last page or so. Gomen ne for the wait. Dark 


	6. Capture

Chapter 6: Capure

Disclaimer: Hmm… I forget to tell you guys this, but in case you didn't figure it out already, I don't own Fruits Basket and all of the characters except for ones that are obviously mine.

Uo yawned, falling down into the grass the next day. It was their physical education block and today the teacher said that there was going to be a surprise for the class. "Man, what a game! I didn't think Kitty-boy would lose that bad!" Uo laughed, propping herself up on her elbows, "and then this morning! I didn't think Princy could be that not charming first thing in the morning."

"Yes, it was quite amusing the first three times he hit the wall when he missed the door," Hana agreed, nodding and holding a small baggie of various fruit leathers.

"Shut up you sissies!" the physical education teacher barked at the class, "today, my counterpart decided that since he will be out today, I have to take over his class. This means co-ed class today ladies." PE classes were usually taken separate, boys with one teacher and girls with another, to make the class supposedly more fair to each gender. Hearing the news, there was a mixed reaction between the girls. While some cheered (the Yuki fan girls), the others grabbed their sweat pants to ward off the boys wandering hands. There was also a small third group that didn't care in the least, of which the trio was the majority, and just shrugged off the change in schedule. Following the teacher to the fence that separated the boys' class from the girls' class, the teacher unlocked the gate and allowed the girls to come through before locking it again.

The PE boys looked around from their lazing about, curious about the females in their presence. "Today, I will be teaching both classes, so we'll make this simple," the teacher handed a ball and a small stack of cones to a boy and a girl, "we are going to play girls versus boys capture the flag. If your flag is pulled on the opposite team's ground, you must go to their jail. If you somehow manage to get the ball to your own team, you score a point. Now, everyone grab a flag and start when I blow the whistle." The teacher stalked over to a tree and sat down in his lawn chair and pulled out his laptop.

"Hey Kyo-kun!" Tohru waved the boys over, "Good morning Yuki-kun!" the girls and boys faced off on opposite sides of the line. '_I have an idea_.' Tohru thought toward Kyo, he nodded, listening. '_Let Hana, Uo or I pull your flags so you have less of a chance at something happening, okay?_' Kyo nodded, watching Yuki out of the corner of his eye.

'_But let's not make it too obvious, eh Kitty-boy_?' Uo added

Kyo bristled, "stop calling me that Yankee!" Yuki and half of the class looked at Kyo after his outburst, but shrugged if off soon after. Grumbling, Kyo turned to Yuki and whispered the plan in his ear. Nodding quickly, Yuki prepared for his charge. The whistle blew and Yuki made a dash between Uo and Tohru, who both grabbed a flag from his belt. Handing his flags back, the girls escorted Yuki to the jail before heading back to the line.

A girl saw them escort Yuki to the jail and charged, screaming, at Tohru. "Man, you'd think with all that noise she was in bed—"

'_Behind you!_' Kyo warned, watching the girl come up fast. Tohru and Uo ran half way to the boy's 'flag' before they were both tackled out, as well as the screaming girl. While Kyo watched the girls get tagged out, he accidentally stepped across the line and Hana pulled his flag. Hiking her finger over her shoulder, she marched Kyo to the jail to join Yuki.

"Hi Kyo." The girl that was set on jail duty purred, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. Completely ignoring her, Kyo sat down against the tree that the jail was by. "How are you doing today?"

"Not right now, Kotenshi." Kyo mumbled, watching the game through slit eyes.

"Hey, I'm here to get you out," a guy from the opposite team spoke up, having easily just walked by the jail guard.

"Oh, poo, you weren't supposed to get through!" Kotenshi whined, sticking out her bottom lip.

"Sorry honey, rules are rules are you missed your chance because you were flirting." The guy turned his waist slightly so that she could see that both of his flags, instead of being on his hips, were over his butt cheeks.

Giving them a sick look, Kyo turned toward Yuki, "you wanna go, or should I get tagged out again."

"Who has less of a chance to get mauled?" Yuki mumbled back, his eyes closed.

"Right," Kyo stood up, brushing the grass from his shorts; '_I'm coming back in_,' from where she was, Hana gave Kyo a quick glance in confirmation. While most of the players weren't watching, Hana had walked to the side that the jail was on and had walked most of the way to get Tohru and Uo out. Somehow, all three girls made it back to their side without a single look… or it was actually because all of the guys decided that they didn't want castration by an electric shock, thus ignored them.

Looking over at the teacher, Tohru smiled and gave a small wave. '_Okay guys, we have to look more convincing. Try to tag out some of the other guys instead of just stalking Yuki-kun and Kyo-kun._' The girls spread out along the line, checking out the other team.

'_We have a runner, Tohru-chan, interference_.' Uo called out, chasing after one of the more spry guys on the other team. Hana came in the side, walking, and made sure he went straight for Tohru. While the guy wasn't looking, Tohru swiped at his belt. Spinning out of the way, he nearly collided with another girl, who pulled his flag off and sent him to jail.

TWEET!! The whistle blew from the teacher. Another one of the guys had snuck in while the first guy was running a distraction and captured the ball.

* * *

"That game sucked." Uo said, adjusting the ice pack that was on her leg. "Zen-Zen, what a creep, and look at this bruise!" she didn't even have to lift the ice pack because the bruise had blossomed to become larger than the baggie. "If I ever see him on the street, he's got another thing coming!"

"Our score was indeed most disappointing." Hana agreed.

"But at least we didn't get too injured, right?" Tohru spoke up, walking back from her visit to the nurse's office.

"If you don't consider that hurt, then I don't know what to call you… invincible?" Uo mumbled, passing Tohru her lunch.

"Ne, Tohru-chan, what happened?" Momiji asked, looking at the ice pack that she held in her hand. "Can I kiss you and make you feel better?" the rabbit was thumped by Kyo. "Wahh! Kyo's being mean again!"

Tohru blushed at Momiji's suggestion, but shook her head. "One of the teachers was absent this morning for PE, so the boys and the girls played capture the flag together."

"And man, after you got Princy out for the third time, I didn't think those girls were gonna let you live!"

"I'm fine, really. Just a few scratches and a bump on the head, it's nothing that hasn't happened before." The boys gave Tohru a curious look, but decided not to ask. For now.

'_Why can't I feel any of your pain when I felt when I thumped you last night?_' Kyo asked, watching Tohru place the ice pack on the back of her head.

It took a few moments, but Tohru closed her eyes and leaned against a tree slightly to help pin the ice pack in place. '_Because we're using our barrier to block the pain from each other_.' She let down her barrier for a moment and Kyo cringed, holding his head.

"Don't you love those pain pills that the nice nurse gave us? She only said I had a mild concussion and that the swelling would go down by tomorrow, isn't that great?"

"Are you sure that you don't want to go home early Tohru-chan? Shigure would probably even call Hatori for you also." Yuki suggested, eyeing the scratches on her arms.

Tohru shook her head, cringed, and then smiled at Yuki. "No, I shouldn't miss any school if I can help it. And Hatori's so busy with his other patients; I wouldn't want to take any time out of his day."

Yuki gave an exasperated sigh, "if you pass out, we can't exactly carry you home Tohru-chan."

"The girls in your class are violent," Haru spoke up for the first time since lunch started, "I watched them out of the classroom window."

"Ne, you shouldn't be daydreaming Haru!" Momiji teased, grinning.

"And you shouldn't let them beat you up," Kyo glared into Tohru's eyes, '_I_ _saw you fight the other day, you could have beat them easily_.' Anger and worry colored the neko's thoughts.

Tohru smiled off Kyo's worry, '_if I would have fought them off, then they would have most likely started hurting other people to try to hurt me more_.' "I'm sorry. I'll try not to let it happen again."

Kyo went to thump Tohru's head, but thought better of it. "Good."

* * *

Tohru picked up the phone after the third ring, "Hello?" she asked hesitantly.

"She said it was okay to use her house." Tohru nodded and remembered that Uo couldn't hear her nod.

"That's good. Is everything set for tomorrow?"

Uo made an affirmative noise, "Hana will bring your cloak tomorrow morning, Obaa-chan's doing some finishing touches tonight. The school already knows that we're 'volunteering for the police department' tomorrow all day and we'll walk to the police station when we get to your house, okay."

"Okay," Tohru looked over her shoulder to the other occupants in the room, "bye."

"Bye."

"I assume that it would be for your benefit if I just stay the night then, Honda-san, correct?" Hatori motioned for Tohru to sit back down at the kotatsu to get the rest of her cuts disinfected and lightly wrapped for the night. Hatori looked under the slightly large bandage on Tohru's forehead and poked the stitches lightly. "Your cut is healing up fine, just don't overdo it tomorrow."

Tohru looked down in embarrassment, muttering a 'hai'. Screwing up her courage, Tohru smiled and looked into Hatori's eyes, "I'll do my best."

Hatori nodded, patting the girl on her uninjured shoulder. "I know a few boys in particular that wouldn't like you getting hurt. Be careful."

"Hai."

* * *

Sorry for taking so long. No excuse but laziness and lack of time. Dark 


	7. Sleep

Chapter 7: Sleep

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket. There, I said it.

"Are you ready?" Tohru nodded, not really focusing on any of the other's faces. After an hour or so of primping and pampering, the girls had donned their matching cloaks and left to the police department. On the way they had turned many-a-head. Between Tohru's curled and pinned hair and make-up and Uo's roguish beauty, they were lucky to not gain any unwanted attention. Or it just might have been Hana's blank stares or Kyo's outright glares at any man that dared to come within ten feet of Tohru.

The men at the station sent the girls wary, but appreciative looks, the women looked on almost piteously, knowing that they were part of the unspoken women's team. Tohru touched the invisi-bandage on her forehead, checking to see that it was still there. The thin sheet of flesh-colored bandage was hidden by carefully applied foundation and powder. Nobody would notice unless they knew what to look for. '_Are you sure you want to come, Kyo?_' Tohru asked silently, taking point to the detective's office.

'_Are you having second-thoughts Tohru-kun?_' Uo's mental voice was subdued, thinking about the upcoming day's work.

'_I'm following you whether you go though this or not._' Kyo looked forward, walking a half-step behind Tohru and keeping an impassive mask on.

Tohru grasped the detective's door handle firmly, pulling the office door open. 'If I was going to turn back, it's too late now.' "Good morning detective!" Tohru chirped, entering the office and sitting down in one of the chairs without being invited. Although her voice was chipper and warm, her gestures and attitude revealed her as her mother's daughter.

Looking up from his coffee and morning paperwork, the detective fairly growled. "You're late, Tohru-chan."

Tohru stood up and leaned over the desk enough to be in the detective's personal space. Batting her eyes, Tohru put on a cute pout, "But, what would be the point of going out to pick up men if I wasn't beautiful." She brushed her lips along his cheekbone as her hand traced the other jawbone. "I just had to put my face on before I came over." Nipping his nose, Tohru pulled back with a sly smile that almost looked mismatched with her large, innocent eyes. "I know how much you want this man, Mister Detective, and I want to be at my best to help you." Sitting down, Tohru let the cape slip to reveal her bare legs as they crossed at the knee. Uo snorted, trying to hold back her laughter. Giving the detective a sweet smile, Tohru grimaced internally and nearly screamed. '_I think I'm going to be sick…_'

"You have the correct arrangements secured, correct?" Hana spoke up, gliding out of the shadow by the door to the front of Itochu's desk. The man paled, pulled back and adjusted his tie, trying to look anywhere but the blocked view of Tohru's naked leg.

"Ri-right. I have them somewhere." The man stood up and went to his file cabinets, pulling a file from the third drawer that he looked through. "This is a confidentiality agreement. I need all of you to sign on the 'X' and we'll be set…all it says is that none of you can speak of anything that happens from now until we capture the perp. Tohru-chan—"

"Don't call her 'chan'." Kyo growled out, scribbling down his name.

"San then. Your payment will be wired to your godfather's account tonight." Nodding, Tohru scanned the document quickly before seductively pulling the pen out of the detective's pocket, even though there was an entire case of pens and pencils sitting on the desk. Signing her name with a flourish, she kissed the pen cap and placed the pen back from where she took it.

"Good. Are we ready to go then, Detective-san?" At his distracted nod (her cape had fallen open more) she smiled. "Good. I would like to visit the restroom first though. It'll just take a moment." Indicating one finger, she placed it on her lips and then his nose. Turning out of the office, Tohru winked at the detective before gliding down the hall. Itochu collapsed back into his chair, staring dazed out into the hallway where he saw the beauty last.

Kyo turned to the detective and leveled a glare at the older man, growling. "If I ever see you do anything to her, I'm not afraid of hurting you, detective." He sneered, crossing his arms and leaning against a filing cabinet by the door. Kyo didn't bother averting his eyes as he felt his pupils slitting like the cat that he was.

'_May I have my toothbrush…?' _Tohru called weakly from the bathroom.

'_Did you actually get sick?_' Uo asked, digging through her sequined bag (for this mission ONLY, then she was returning it to Ayame's shop. Prince's brother could be so pushy sometimes.) to check for Tohru's brush before heading out the door after glaring at the detective briefly.

'_No, but I feel like I _should_ do something_.' Even with Tohru's internally-focused mood, she felt Kyo's unsure mood. '_Kyo, it's just perverts that make me ill.'_

'It's _about that 'other form' isn't it? Look kitty-boy, stop moping about that. Tohru likes you and she_ did _go after you, remember? She even went after you after Hana and I tried to stop her._'

'You _tried to stop her. I was stopping you._' Hana cut in.

'_I'm ready to go now. Let's talk about this later, ok?_' Tohru sent a frustrated spike though the connection as the two girls entered the detective's office. "Ready to go now detective?" Tohru purred, leaning forward slightly. The detective nodded dumbly, standing up from his chair and gesturing the door, avoiding the two, well, one glaring and the other just plain creepy, on his way out the door. Taking the lead, the detective took the group to the parking lot and to his unmarked. It actually looked like a taxi cab with a 'privacy shield' between the driver and the back seat. Through unanimous decision, Kyo took the front seat while the three girls sat in back. There were already other unmarked vehicles in the red-light district, as well as officers that were hopefully not getting too drunk to do their jobs. All of the Mama-san and most of the girls knew about the operation, so they didn't question the slight influx of customers that held concealed weapons of various sorts.

The detective dropped Hana off first, giving the girl time to climb to the roof of one of the buildings to watch overhead. She spotted other officers on the other rooftops, but she doubted that the binoculars that they had were for any other use than to look down the scantily-clad girls' shirts. '_Looks like we're on our own. The other officers are either drunk off of boobs or beer._' Hana deadpanned in a way that sounded more like Uo's street slang than her mysterious lilt. Various degrees of laughter met her assessment. After her confirmation that she was in place, Hana signaled Uo and Tohru to get into place, walking from opposite directions to their street corners.

'_Get ready for a long day girls… and Kyo… we're going to be here a while._' They didn't know which one said it, so they nodded and got as comfortable as possible. Tohru sat on a half wall nearby, swinging her legs and flirting with everything that moved. Uo leaned against the wall and practically ignored the men that tried to hang on her. Her model-like beauty, coupled with her less-than-modest attire grabbed all of the attention to look like one of the usual street walkers in the red-light district. The two girls had ditched their cloaks with Kyo and Itochu as they had gotten out of the vehicle. Catching Kyo's eye, it took Tohru a few minutes for her blush to fade. She didn't even have to look to feel the detective's lustful gaze on her laced back. She almost called it quit right then, but she had friends in this area that were in danger the longer the guy was on the loose.

After the first hour, although Tohru's smile stayed inviting, she tuned out the street. It was still morning, so there plain wasn't much happening on the street except for underage students ditching school to get some action. "Hey girlie." A gruff voice snapped Tohru out of her trance as the burly man's shadow fell over her face. His hands pinned her to the half wall that she was sitting on.

'_Be careful, Tohru. He's not the guy we're after_.' Hana warned, watching the interaction intently.

'_I know_.' "Hey there yourself. Aren't you a handsome, strong man?" she hummed seductively, rubbing up and down his arm sensually. '_I might as well have fun while I'm here though…_' "I know a place we can go get some _privacy_… that is, if you want." Tohru winked appreciatively. "Although, I'm guessing you like it rough and dirty though, am I right?" the man chuckled, helping Tohru hop off of the wall.

"Lead the way, girlie." He slurred, his hand on her delicate waist. She smiled seductively, taking both of his hands and leading him down the alley. At the dead end, the man looked around for a door or something. "Wait… where are you taking me?"

Tohru smiled and stroked his cheek, "I thought you'd appreciate the 'rough and dirty'." Leaning up on her toes, she licked his collar bone as she fisted her hands into his shirt. Dropping down, she heaved the man to roll over her shoulder and onto his back, stunning him for a few moments. Straddling him, Tohru rubbed her hands up and down his chest, slipping under his shirt. She scratched him with her nails, smiling seductively the whole time. Leaning down, she captured his mouth with hers, teasing his bottom lip. She could taste the low-quality sake as he tried to kiss back. Pulling back, she waved her finger. "Impatient one, aren't you?" after scratching him again, she leaned in and captured his kiss, making sure to put her full intent into the action. His hands tightened around her upper arms as he met her kiss with his own, but they quickly slipped to the ground as he went unconscious. Drawing her hands from under his shirt, she grimaced at her nails.

Drawing a small plastic baggie, sharpie and nail file from her bustier, Tohru took the skin samples from under her nails and put them into the baggie, sealing it. Rolling the man over, Tohru grabbed his wallet from his back pocket and took out his ID. She scribbled his name and address on the baggie and put it away. Putting it away, she though different of it before taking all of his cash and then putting the wallet back. He only had a few hundred yen left, and he would only think that he spent it on cheap drinks. Dragging him to the end of the alley, she stashed him behind a dumpster, where he would wake up some time tomorrow… eventually…

'_Did you have fun?_' Uo asked, a humorous lilt in her voice.

'_They never last long enough_.' Tohru pouted, returning to her designated spot.

'_What happened?_' Kyo asked, not really aware of what was happening since he was in the car.

Tohru sent a mental shrug to the boy, _'I just got some practice for capturing the perp later_.' A spattering of laughter came from the other two. Kyo shivered at the nonchalant tone, having a mild idea of what happened.

"You cold?" Itochu asked, seeing Kyo shiver.

Shaking his head, Kyo looked out the window. "No, I'm just worried." The detective nodded and continued to drive.

'_I think you scared kitty-boy, T. I guess he's never seen you do anything like this before, huh?_' Uo crowed, laughing out loud at something that one of the men vying for her attention said.

'_Never had the opportunity_.' Tohru watched Uo with amusement. '_Why don't you indulge one of them? It's slow enough for him not to show up yet_.'

'_You sure?_' Uo asked in concern, watching Tohru watch another guy that was passing.

'_Yeah. Hana-chan will alert us if she sees him, right?_'

'_Correct, Tohru-chan._' Hana affirmed, her voice as soft and distant as it was when she was speaking with her mouth. Nodding reluctantly, Uo smiled and hooked her arm around one of the obviously underage boys in the group.

"Ok, today's your lucky day, squirt. Today I make you a man." Kissing him, she trapped him in her eyes and led him back into the alley. Looking at the other boys, she held up a finger. "Uh-uh, stay there boys and if you're nice, I might pick one of you next." Winking, Uo walked him around and behind the building she was standing by. In the shadows of the alley, Uo led the boy inside a back door to the building. She smiled at one of the girls that worked in the den and she gestured for Uo to use one of the empty rooms. With a quick word of thanks, Uo drove the boy into the room and shut the door behind her.

The boy heard a click as the lock was set into place. Looking around, he noticed that the room was lavishly furnished with multiple satin pillows strewn around on the floor. A kotatsu sat in the middle of the room with a coal heating plate ready to use. "Um… I've never done anything like this before…" the boy said nervously, looking around and seeing no exit except for the door.

"Don't worry; I'll take care of you." Uo purred, looping her arms around the shorter boy's shoulders. She kissed his forehead and pushed him back into the pillows.

(O)

'_Did you have fun?_' Tohru asked, in the middle of flirting with one of Uo's boys. The girl shrugged and grabbed another from behind, nibbling his earlobe.

'_like you said earlier, they don't last long enough_.'

"Hmm…" Tohru slow-danced with her boy, '_don't worry, the better ones come out during the late afternoon_.'

'_The suspect is supposed to come tonight. You'll have to focus then_.' Hana reminded the girls.

Kyo just couldn't hold his tongue any longer. _'Did you just have sex with that guy?!_'

His exclamation was met with laughter. '_If you want, I can always try with you… it'd be my first…_' Uo snickered, not able to say anything more. The boy that she was holding looked at her strangely as she started chuckling sadistically.

'_We're all waiting until marriage… hopefully…_' Tohru commented, kissing the corner of the boy's mouth, just enough for his eyes to glaze over and him to walk away in a daze.

'_The boys that we choose are knocked out and their ID and skin samples are taken. That is all_.' Hana was the only one able to explain without bursting into giggles.

'…_oh…_' the heat of the blush carried through the connection and sent the girls to laughing again. Kyo managed to stay quiet for most of the rest of the day, only commenting that Itochu went to get gas or a snack or something like that. Each of the girls took turns with breaks, going into the brothel that they were allowed to use as a base. Idle chat kept the connection going, making sure that nothing happened to either of the girls on the street. Only once did either one call for help, which was quickly taken care of by the other with Hana's long-distance help.

'_My feet are killing me_.' Uo groaned, looking up at the setting sky. Back in the room that she was allowed to use, she had at least half a dozen boys which Tohru had later kissed to kill their short-term memory and lust.

'_Let's just hope that that is the only thing dying tonight_.' Tohru commented soberly, looking up at the clouds also. A few minutes of silence stood between them as they watched the red silk draped traditional lanterns being lit, as well as regular and red-tinted lights being turned on.

'_It's kind of beautiful, the lan—'_

'_Suspect coming in, 9 O'clock_.' Hana interrupted, bursting the peaceful mood. Nodding, Tohru straightened up and lightly hopped off of the wall. Swallowing her nervousness, Tohru sauntered up to the man. '_Confirm suspect Blue_.' Hana used code names, even though the likelihood of someone that is psychic picking up on their conversation was minimal at best.

Tohru nodded, but it was more like a jerk of her head. '_Confirmed. And he's as ugly as his pictures_.'

'_I'm in position_.' Uo spoke up.

'_I am also_.'

'_Told the 'tective'_

"Hello handsome…"


	8. Purple Room

Chapter 8: The Purple Room

Disclaimer: I only wish I owned Fruits Basket, but, I don't.

'_I'm in position_.' Uo spoke up.

'_I am also_.'

'_Told the 'tective'_

"Hello handsome, what's a man like you doing out on the streets?" Tohru purred, sidling up to his side and placing a seductive hand on his chest. The man grinned down at Tohru, teeth stained brown with age and unhealthy habits. His breath stunk of cheap alcohol and smoke as he ducked down to try to kiss Tohru. Quickly stepping away, Tohru hid her cringe as a playful smile as she waggled her finger in his face.

"Nuh-uh." The girl gave a convincing giggle, "don't you want to go and have some fun first?"

The man smiled at Tohru. It would have been friendly and open sometime in his childhood, but Tohru couldn't help but only see the malice that seeped into the stranger's eyes. "I know a place we can go, follow me." The man shrugged and turned away, walking away from the designated safe-zone. The man missed the panic in her eyes as she grabbed the back of his worn leather jacket.

"Wait! I-uh- I know someplace that you would absolutely love. It's private and- uh- we'll be completely alone!"

"Well, aren't you a good little whore, huh? Loyal to that pimp that owns you, huh? Aren't allowed out of his sight?" The man taunted, looking around with a smug grin. "I bet he's over there, huh? That bastard staring at you out that window over there." He grabbed Tohru roughly and turned her to the window where she could a man watching outside the window from the room that a woman was pouring him sake and other occupants were having their fun.

'_Abort?_' Hana asked, watching from above.

"No, he's not my master."

"Then he won't mind if I do this," stooping down, the man licked the shell of her ear, biting it hard at the top.

Crying out, Tohru tried to push away, but felt cold steel press into her back from where his hand grasped her waist. Making eye contact with her so-called 'pimp', he turned away at her pleading glance.

'_Abort?_' Hana pressed again, sensing Tohru's panic.

'_No! I have to finish this._' Tohru pressed, though her mental voice was strained.

'_Just say the word, T, and we'll come over there_.' Uo looked worried as she watched discreetly from under a man trying to woo her.

'_What's happening, Tohru? Arisa?_' Kyo asked, his mental voice laced with worry.

Blocking out the others, Tohru took a calming breath and grabbed the hand around her waist. "Are you sure that you want to do that here," Tohru cringed mentally, "Handsome?"

The man laughed and tucked Tohru under his arm, the metal object still pressed firmly in her waist. "Maybe I'll have my way before killing you, eh whore? Lead the way." He whispered in her ear like a lover. Nodding resolutely, Tohru looked down either side of the street before crossing the minimum-traffic road. Leading him under a red curtained façade, they entered a front room that looked like it could belong to a fancy boutique hotel. Crimson sheer cloth draped over the walls, muffling the track lights that bent like waves under water. Incense smoke spiraled in the air, scenting the room with a sweet exotic scent that blended well with the cigarette smoke coming from an older lady sitting in a corner, reading a book as she lounged on the couch.

"Mama Zugai?" the lady looked up and placed a bookmark in her romance novel. Holding back a smile, Tohru recognized the book, particularly the pseudonym that was splashed across the bottom of the cover. So that's how Hana had 'paid off' the Mama, by giving her collection of Shigure's books to her, most likely to just borrow for a while. "Just a second," Tohru smiled at the man, putting her hand on his chest and drawing a star with her finger. Nodding at the visible clue, the Mama looked back to Tohru.

"What is it?" Zugai croaked, her voice roughened by her years of smoking. A cigarette was attached to the long pipe that she held in her fingers as she pulled it away from her mouth to speak. Despite her voice, she was a young-looking Mama, thin and almost no wrinkles marred her pale face. Long black hair hung straight behind her. A lacy long dress hung from her frame properly, flattering her bosom with an intricately-cut corset top and her legs with lace-fringed slits up to her mid-thigh. A garter belt ended one of the thigh-high black nylons that ended at ribbon-tied strapped closed-toe high-heel sandals.

"Is Kitty-bell coming in tonight? I might need some help if he's as _big_ as it seems." Taking a puff from her cigarette, Zugai eyed the man critically. 'Kitty' was the code word that Kyo (reluctantly) agreed on, and 'Bell' was the code word in the red-lights for the police.

"She might. Want someone else if she doesn't come in tonight." The man grew impatient, pressing his hand covering the weapon further into her side. Eyes growing wide momentarily in fear, Tohru took another calming breath.

"N-no, I think I'll be good." Nodding, Zugai gestured to the red-beaded curtain that hid the door to the rest of the brothel.

"Use the purple room, blue-bell." She gestured vaguely turning back to the book that she laid in front of herself on the fainting couch. Nodding, Tohru brushed the strung beads away from the door and allowed the man to go first. The hallway beyond the curtain was dim with a darkened version of the rainbow, starting at a shade of crimson melding into an almost-brown burnt umber into a muted gold. In each section of color, a matching door almost disappeared into the surrounding wall. The lighting continued to dim until they came upon the purple section that seemed almost black in the dim, hazy lighting. Opening the door Tohru gestured for the man to go first, but he shoved Tohru in instead.

'_Where are you?_' the almost panicked voice of Uo flashed through her mind as she landed hard.

'_Sorry_' Tohru grimaced as she tried to get up. It was good that the room was littered with crimson and purple pillows of different shapes and sizes, framing a large bed with silk sheets of the same coloring. She got to her knees when the man knocked her to the floor again.

"You're one of those police whores, aren't you?" the man snarled, slapping her across the face and into the wall.

'_Purple room!_' she gasped out mentally, '_give me ten minutes_.'

'_One_!' Kyo snarled, seemingly right outside the door

'_Five_.' She argued back, checking her lip with her fingers.

'_We will give you two_.' Hana's voice was stern and Tohru had to resist nodding.

'_Two_.' She agreed, "No, I'm not!" she yelled out, backing up into the far wall, "I'm not with the police." He grabbed her by the top, pulling her forcefully away from the wall and when she was close enough, he grabbed the back of her head by a fistful of hair, and pulled her head back so that she couldn't turn away from him.

"You're lying to me," the man growled, "I can tell when you're lying, whore." Pushing her back into the wall again, the man straddled her, pinning her legs, while his hands pushed down on both of her shoulders. Sneering above her, Tohru whimpered and tried to get away. Removing one of his hands, he grabbed the top of her halter top again and pulled, trying to rip the fabric away. Luckily, only a few stitches gave and nothing else. She would have to remember to thank Ayame for such a wonderful sewing job later… if she survived.

Growling, the man gave one last yank, pulling Tohru up to his face. "You pathetic whore, at least do your job right." And with that, he captured her lips roughly, biting down hard on her lip. With her gasp of pain, he forced his tongue into her mouth, muffling her scream. Biting his tongue as hard as she could, he retracted in pain, covering his mouth. "Yu bith!" he yelled, slapping her hard enough to go across the few feet to hit the foot of the bed.

Turning aside, she spit out the blood in her mouth from biting her lip and his bit tongue. He lunged after her, but his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell mid-lunge. '_Get me out now_!' she screamed mentally, turning the man over and before her fear got the best of her, captured his lips properly, sealing his sleep for a good, long while. Falling back, she scrambled to the wall, not daring to look away from the man that nearly… nearly…

"Oh, god!" she moaned, curling up with her hands clasped around her ankles and her chin on her knees.

"Tohru!" the door burst open, revealing Kyo with his leg still up from kicking the door.

"The door was unlocked, Kyo-kun." Tohru murmured quietly, not looking away from the body on the floor. Pushing Kyo aside, Uo and Hana ran to Tohru's sides. Hana slipped the cloak over Tohru's shoulders as Uo checked over Tohru's bruises worriedly.

A pair of plain-clothes officers came in next, checking the man over, "he's alive, lets get him out of here." The first officer said, sitting the unconscious man up so he and the other officer could each take an arm and walk him out to the waiting police car. Tohru watched him leave silently, not taking her eyes off of him until the officers turned his comatose body down the hall and out of her sight.

Kyo, not really sure of what to do or say, stood by the door, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "Um… h-hey, Tohru…" He waited until the girl looked at him. "Hatori's here." Looking at Kyo blankly, Tohru nodded softly and stood up with the girls' help. The walked slowly out to the front, letting Tohru set the pace.

"Tohru-chan." Zugai spoke up, sitting up from her lounged position. The younger girl stopped and looked at the house Mama. "Thank you for getting him. I'm glad that my girls are safer now." Giving the Mama a small smile, Tohru and the others started walking again.

* * *

Kyo knocked on the door to the bathroom, holding his bottle of mouth wash in one hand and her toothbrush in the other. He was surprised when the door swung open slowly of its own accord because Tohru didn't close it properly. "Tohru?" The girl knelt in front of the western-style toilet, her hands on either side of the rim, holding her steady so that she wouldn't collapse. She dry-heaved, choking on her own breath and spitting out the small amount of spit that had collected in her mouth into the toilet. Leaving the mouth wash on the counter, he filled the rinse cup by the sink with water from the tap and handed it to her. Nodding her silent thanks, Tohru swished with half of the water in the cup and spit it into the toilet as well. She repeated with the other half of the water.

"Should I call Hatori?" Shaking her head, Tohru sat back on her heels and took the moist washcloth that Kyo offered her. Closing the lid and flushing, Tohru sat back hard against the opposite wall and buried her face in the moist towel, wiping splash-back off as gently as she could, wincing as she hit bruises that were quickly turning purple and spreading. Touching her eye, she felt the puffiness of the lid and brow. She had a shiner that would make Uo proud, given another circumstance.

Shifting his weight, Kyo stood by the sink idly, not wanting to leave Tohru alone, but not quite knowing what to do. Spying Tohru's hair brush, he got an idea. "Tohru?" he winced at her slight flinch, but continued on, "Umm…" he held up her brush in an offering gesture, "do you… do you want me to brush your hair?" Seeing her blank stare, he continued on, "I-I mean, once, when Kagura was upset, she asked for her hair to be brushed, and…" Tohru nodded mutely, turning her back to Kyo and cutting off his rambling. Kneeling, Kyo took a fresh wet cloth and first rubbed off the splash-back that had tangled into her hair. Tossing the towel into the sink, Kyo started on her long hair, one small section at a time. Finishing, he tied her hair into a loose braid to keep it out of her way, using a hair ribbon to tie a bow at the end. It wasn't the most glamorous, but it kept her hair out of the way. Accidentally brushing one of her ears, Tohru flinched at the touch.

"The bastard bit your ear?" Nodding, Tohru bit down a hiss as she traced the shell of her ear, checking if his teeth broke skin, like it felt like he did. Her fingers came away clean, but that didn't mean that her skin wasn't punctured. "Come on, Hatori's waiting." Kyo pulled Tohru's wrist gently, but she shook her head and pulled away.

"Let me brush my teeth, okay?" Nodding, Kyo backed out the door and waited in the hall, spotting a small pile of clothes outside the door that wasn't there when he went in. Knocking gently before opening the door, Kyo laid the pile on the counter next to the sink. Nodding her thanks, Tohru continued brushing her teeth. A few minutes later, Tohru came out in a camisole and pajama pants, both a light pink with blue cats on them, with the words 'Glamour cat' in English, written in glitter. Blushing, Tohru pulled the matching hapi jacket closer, the blue of the fabric was hemmed in the same pink as the pajamas.

Blushing in return, Kyo decided not to comment on the wardrobe choice ('she's cute') and gestured down the stairs to where everyone else was waiting. Allowing Tohru to walk down first, Kyo hovered behind to her left to catch her in case she fell. Her feet still weren't as steady as they could have been. He noticed that she had taken the hair pulled back in her braid and tugged it enough so that it covered the bite mark on her ear. "Hatori still needs to see your ear, Tohru." Kyo murmured gently, following her into the living room where it seemed as if most of the inner circle had gathered. Blushing deeply, Tohru didn't look up from the tatami that made the floor of most of the house.

"Tohru-kun!" Kagura broke the silence that had fallen over the family and friends, leaping up and enveloping Tohru in one of her gentler hugs. Flinching slightly, Tohru looked away and into a corner of the room.

"Thank you for caring about me," she murmured, her voice barely reaching the other's as she was led to where Hatori sat next to the kotatsu, his bag already open to treat Tohru's physical wounds. He already knew from the semi-private drive back to Shigure's house that she hadn't sustained anything much more than a few cuts that could be treated without much embarrassment.

Gesturing for Tohru to take off the hapi jacket, Hatori prepared the bottle of disinfectant for her scratched. Hesitantly, Tohru peeled it off and let it drop around her on the floor. Bruises mottled her arms, chest, shoulders and face, some even going below where her camisole started. Someone gave a low whistle, seeing how the bruises had developed under the makeup that Tohru had removed before coming down.

"Princess…"

"Nee-chan…"

"You look like shit," Hiro deadpanned, saying what Kisa and the others couldn't, earning himself a smack over the head from Kyo.

Rubbing in bruise cream as gently as he could, Hatori looked into Tohru's eyes, "I can always write you a school absence for tomorrow." He had offered the same thing during the car ride, when the bruising wasn't as evident under the makeup, but he was more insistent this time.

Shaking her head, Tohru gave a small smile. "No, I've already missed a day of school, I don't want to disappoint Mom by skipping another day… they're only bruises."

"Yeah, with those stitches also, someone's gonna call you on fightin' or somethin', Tohru." Uo grinned, crossing her arms.

"As far as the school will care, they were done by the prince's fan club." Hana spoke up from where she sat, the corner seemed unnaturally darkened.

Uo snorted, "Or that. If those bitches get punished for beating up on poor Tohru, they'll get what they deserved!" Yuki cringed, but he didn't speak up to defend them. "The whole school knows by now that one of their goals is to try to get at Tohru for 'interfering with the prince's sanctity' or some shit like that."

"Her ear was bitten also," Kyo spoke up, seeing Hatori start to put away the disinfectant and liquid bandaged. Hatori raised his eyebrow at Tohru and she nodded, brushing the hair that hid her ear tip from sight. Dabbing the disinfectant on, he let it work before wiping it off and putting more liquid bandaging on the shallow scratch from one of the teeth.

Putting away the disinfectant and liquid bandaging, Hatori started to speak: "I'll tell you what I tell the boys when they get into a fight: don't do it again. Running away is always an option and it doesn't hurt your pride to be the one to stand up and say no." in a rare show of affection, Hatori kissed Tohru brow briefly, "I don't like seeing family getting hurt, and I especially don't like being the one to treat them because of a petty reason. If you have to fight, be careful…" Hatori shut his case and stood up. "Tohru-san, you make a lot of people sad when you get hurt." Nodding, Tohru pulled the hapi jacket back around her shoulders, careful of the drying liquid bandages. Shigure and Ayame followed Hatori to the door, talking for a few moments before the doctor left back for the Honke.

"Don't worry; I'm not going to do that again." She whispered, her hand brushing the needle holster hidden under her pant leg. Finding the end, She scratched her fingertip over the sharp point and smiled internally at the shivers that ran up her arm at the touch.

* * *

Yay, I'm done! Please don't ask for any more on this story, because I won't write any more. The lesson to be learned here: even the sweetest, most innocent, person can have a bit of a sadistic side.

See you on my other stories!

Dark Inu Fan


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